- Credibility:
IRVING PARK — A 21-year-old man shot and killed by police in an Irving Park alley last month had fallen to the ground, had a gun in his hand and was attempting to get back up when officers opened fire, newly released footage shows.
Isidro Valverde, 21, was shot and killed by Chicago police officers Jorge Ulloa and Jose Carcamo about 3 a.m. Feb. 8. The new footage released Wednesday also shows a man pointing a gun a someone outside a bar, who police say is Valverde, and fleeing before someone at the bar called 911.
In a statement, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said Valverde ran into an alley, fell down and was ordered by officers to stay on the ground. As Valverde began to get up, both officers fired their guns at him multiple times, killing him, the statement said.
After the shooting, Supt. David Brown said Valverde shot first at the officers, who returned fire. Oversight officials said it was not clear if Valverde fired at officers.
It’s unclear if Valverde fired a gun at anyone based on released footage.
“As a part of COPA’s full and thorough investigation, we will consider the totality of the circumstances known to officers, their decision to engage in a foot pursuit, the discharge of the individual’s weapon as he began to get up and whether the officers’ use of deadly force was in accordance with department policy and training,” Ephraim Eaddy, the agency’s first deputy chief administrator, said in a statement.
In bodycam video from one of the officers who fired shots, a dispatcher at one point asks: “Was this shots fired by the police or at the police?”
The officer wearing the bodycam can be heard saying: “By the police, yes, by us.”
COPA is also seeking to obtain additional video about the shooting and is asking anyone with information or footage of the incident to contact their office at 312-746-3609 or by visiting ChicagoCOPA.org.
Messages left with Valverde’s family were not immediately returned.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoTwo officers, a 12-year veteran and a probationary officer, responded to a call from a bouncer at Christina’s Place, 3759 N. Kedzie Ave., about a man pointing a gun at people outside the business, police previously said.
Around 2:58 a.m. that day, security footage from a camera just outside the bar aimed at Grace Street shows a man pacing on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets who appears to be Valverde. A few minutes later, the man pulls a gun out of one of his pockets and points it at another man who was approaching him, the video shows.
The bar’s security footage next shows the man approaching Valverde stopping, putting his hands in the air and then walking backwards while facing him. Once the man with his hands in the air is out of frame, Valverde starts walking east on Grace while stopping periodically to look behind him, the video shows.
COPA also released audio of a 911 call from 2:58 a.m. that day of a man asking for police assistance due to a someone pointing a gun at the bar’s “door guy.”
“We’ve got a guy who will not stop threatening and trying to attack the physical property,” the man said. “So we would love it if somebody could just roll by and maybe hit him with some brights to scare him off. … He’s threatening people with a gun on the sidewalk now. Literally right now.”
Credit: Provided.Police body camera footage shows two officers pull up in a police car at the intersection of Kedzie and Grace near Christina’s Place around 3:06 a.m. and stop. The officer in the passenger seat briefly steps outside the vehicle to look around before getting back in, the footage shows.
Next, the two officers pull a u-turn to head east on Grace and start driving around the residential neighborhood. While still inside the car, the officer in the passenger seat pulls out a handgun, the footage shows.
The two officers then get out of the stopped police car at 3:07 a.m. and run down the street after someone, according to the footage.
Body camera footage shows the officer who had been driving the police car exiting and then running after Valverde, yelling for him to, “Get on the f—— ground now! Get on the f—— ground! Get on the ground, stop it! Stay down!”
Footage shows the officer still yelling at Valverde as he enters an alley in the 3700 block of North Troy Street and falls to the ground. Next the sound of multiple rapid gunshots can be heard.
“Shots fired. Shots fired by the police. Shots fired,” one of the officers said, after the shooting.
After the shooting the other officer said, “F——.“
It’s unclear in the footage if Valverde also fired a gun.
Credit: Alex V. Hernandez/Block Club ChicagoThe tactical response reports released along with the footage said Officer Ulloa fired his gun three times while Officer Carcamo fired his gun eight times.
Both officers selected “other” when the report asked who fired the first shot and only Officer Ulloa said his shots contributed to Valverde’s injuries, according to the report.
After the shooting the body camera footage shows the officers calling for an ambulance, slowly walking towards and shining flashlights at Valverde’s motionless body on the ground and warning officers he still has a gun in his hand.
Valverde’s body appears to have a gun in his left hand and one of the officers who shot at him tells a woman on the radio that shots were fired by the police, according to the footage.
“He’s still got the gun. He’s still got the gun on him,” one officer said, in the footage. “Stay back, he’s still got the gun in his hand.”
One of the officers who shot at Valverde next says, “F—— my life. I don’t want to go over there.” A newly arrived female officer tells him, “I don’t think he’s breathing anymore.”
After more police arrive one of the officers who shot at Valverde gets close to the body in order to kick the handgun away from the body while other police “cover” him, the footage shows.
The officer then kicks the gun out of Valverde’s hand, the footage shows.
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