CHICAGO _ The Cook County state's attorney's office moved quickly to charge an Amtrak police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man during an on-duty incident near Union Station last week.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the victim, Chad Robertson, 25, alleged that the officer "calmly" dropped to one knee and shot Robertson once in the back after he had taken off running following an allegedly illegal search.
The officer, LaRoyce Tankson, 31, opened fired in fear for his life after he said Robinson turned toward him and pulled something from his pocket, according to Tankson's lawyer, William Fahy. He has been an Amtrak officer for 1 { years, the lawyer said.
Prosecutors had asked that Tankson be held without bail, but Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil set bond at $250,000 during a hearing Friday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
An autopsy by the medical examiner's officer found that Robertson, of Minneapolis, had been shot in the back.
The shooting took place bout 8:40 p.m. on Feb. 8. Robertson was taking a bus from Memphis, Tenn., to Minneapolis and was on a stopover in Chicago, police have said.
Prosecutors on Friday said Tankson found Robertson and two others smoking marijuana outside Union Station but that the group had stopped at his request and Robertson apologized.
Later, Tankson and his partner stopped the three to search them. As he did a pat-down on one of the others, he felt what he thought was a hard metal object, said Assistant State's Attorney Ahmed Kosoko. When Tankson asked what the object was, Robertson took off running, Kosoko said.
According to the prosecutor, Tankson "assumed a crouching firing stance" and fired once, striking Robertson from about 75 to 100 feet away.
Tankson's partner told authorities he saw no weapon on Robertson, Kosoko said.
Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has previously said Robertson was unarmed and had cash and narcotics on him.
Robertson's family filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago on Tuesday that alleged that Tankson had followed Robertson and his travel companions to a restaurant near Union Station during the layover.
The suit said Tankson and his partner illegally detained Robertson and his companions and began to conduct illegal searches of them.
Tankson was "very aggressive, disrespectful and again used a great deal of profanity during the illegal search," the suit said.
The suit alleged Robertson "feared for his life" and took off running.
According to the suit, Tankson "calmly dropped to one knee, removed his gloves, unsecured his weapon" and fired twice while Robertson was less than 30 feet away.
Tankson announced no commands, saying only, "It's a gun out. It's a gun out," according to the suit.
He handcuffed the collapsed Robertson as "he lay in the street clinging to life," the suit alleged.
The shooting left Robertson paralyzed, and he died a week later, at 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, according to the medical examiner's office.
Following the shooting, Amtrak said the officers involved in the incident had been placed on administrative assignment, standard practice following a shooting. On Friday, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said that status remained unchanged after the filing of murder charges against Tankson. He could not say if Tankson continues to be paid by Amtrak.
