DOWNTOWN — The 24-year-old culinary arts student robbed and shot in his head in Lincoln Park last year is filing a civil rights lawsuit, saying police missed multiple chances to stop the man accused of the shooting.
Dakotah Earley is suing Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Supt. David Brown and two unnamed police officers, he and his attorneys announced in a news conference Thursday.
Earley, then 23, was seriously wounded in the May 6 shooting, one in a string of violent robberies across the North Side, prosecutors said.
Earley, who was walking in the 1300 block of West Webster Avenue, was ambushed by a pair of robbers, one of whom shot him twice in his back and once in his head, prosecutors said. A neighbor who witnessed the attack rushed to Earley’s aid until paramedics arrived, likely saving his life.
Tyshon Brownlee, 19, was charged with attempted murder in Earley’s shooting.
The attack on Earley left him on life support as he underwent several surgeries, including having his left leg amputated at the knee, his family said.
The crime was preventable, said Cass Casper, Earley’s attorney. Attorneys have reviewed dispatches that show police spotted Brownlee in a stolen BMW near Solider Field about an hour before Earley was shot, Casper said.
Brownlee sped away, and officers did not chase him, Casper said.
“If police continued their pursuit earlier, it could have prevented this entire chain of events,” Casper said. “All they had to do was tail the perpetrator and make him stop. But they didn’t.”
There were “numerous incidents” where police could have previously caught Brownlee, who was known to law enforcement for a “violent rampage” and robbery spree in the days prior to Earley’s shooting, Casper said.
Casper blamed a police directive issued in August 2020 “ingrained in the minds of rank-and-file officers not to chase under any circumstances.”
The changes to the department’s chase policy came after the City Council approved a $15 million settlement to the family of a 37-year-old mother of six who was killed in 2020 when an officer chasing a carjacking suspect slammed into her car in Lakeview. That officer had been ordered to stop the chase before the fatal crash occurred.
Now, officers must “consider the need for immediate apprehension of an eluding suspect and the requirement to protect the public from the danger created by eluding offenders.” Marked police cars chasing someone must have their lights and sirens activated.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office and the Police Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Amanda Martin, another attorney for Earley’s family, said they’re seeking “full and complete compensation” for “every second of terror Dakotah experienced that night in Lincoln Park, for every moment he spent fighting for his life in the hospital.”
“We’re working on putting his prosthetic on, which is not easy for a mom to watch,” said Earley’s mother, Joy Dobbs. “We’re moving forward. This is definitely a club — being victims of violence — we didn’t sign up for.”
Earley, speaking publicly for the first time, said he’s recovering at home and will undergo his 14th surgery soon.
The former culinary student said he made breakfast Thursday morning.
“I’m mostly optimistic. It’s hard becoming an amputee, but I’m in good spirits most of the time,” Earley said. “As soon as I can learn how to walk and stand up again full-time, I can do most of what I would have been able to do a year ago.”
Earley plans to stay in Chicago and is talking to his mom about going back to school, he said.
Good music got him through the days he battled for his life, he said.
“I try not to think about what happened too much. There are times I think maybe I should have done that, or done this, but this could happen to anyone,” Earley said. “Push forward. It’s not your fault.”
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