CHICAGO _ A Chicago police officer has been indicted on federal civil rights charges after a video captured him firing at a car as it was backing away from him, wounding two teens inside.
Officer Marco Proano, 41, is charged with two counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law for the December 2013 incident in the 9400 block of South LaSalle Street.
The Chicago Tribune reported in June 2015 that the shooting was the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office, citing a source.
At the time of the shooting, Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents rank-and-file officers, defended the shooting by saying the officer opened fire out of concern over a passenger who was being dragged by the vehicle as he tried to get out.
Chicago police have said the officer involved in the shooting was immediately taken off the street after the shooting and assigned to paid desk duty.
The video was first aired last year by The Chicago Reporter after it said it obtained the footage from former Cook County Judge Andrew Berman, who heard a criminal case involving one of the teens before he retired.
The publication said Berman called the officer's actions the most disturbing he's seen in his legal career.
The city agreed to a $360,000 settlement with the mothers of three teens injured during the incident, including the two who were shot.
Proano, who has been with the department since 2006, received nine complaints during a four-year period ending in mid-December 2014, police records show. He was never disciplined for any of the complaints, which included allegations of illegal searches and excessive force.
According to a lawsuit filed by the mothers, several teens were riding in a car that was stopped by two officers near 95th and LaSalle streets when one passenger fled the scene. Proano then arrived.
In the nearly three-minute video, taken by a camera mounted on a squad car, Proano is seen walking quickly toward the teens' car with his gun pointed sideways at them in his left hand. He then backs away briefly as the car goes into reverse, away from the officer. Proano then raises his gun with both hands and opens fire, the video shows.
The suit alleged that Proano fired more than a dozen shots into the vehicle.
One of the teens was shot in the shoulder and grazed in his forehead and cheek, according to the lawsuit. Another teen was shot in his left hip and right heel. A third teen was forcibly taken to the ground by one of the officers, causing an injury to his right eye, the suit alleged.
The suit alleged that officers removed the teens from hospitals without authorization and took them to a Far South Side police station for questioning. During interviews with police, one of the teens was in "extreme anguish" from his gunshot wounds, at times crying in pain, according to the suit. The other wounded teen had to be taken back to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn because his shoulder began to bleed profusely, according to the suit.
But at the time of the shooting, the Police Department and police union spokesman Camden gave much different accounts.
According to a statement released at the time by the Police Department's Office of News Affairs, the car's driver ran off and someone else jumped in the driver's seat and put the car into reverse. The officer then opened fire, the statement said.
The FOP's Camden said officers initially stopped the car because they thought it was stolen. He said the driver put the car in reverse toward officers who were approaching it. The driver then drove forward, dragging the passenger in the back seat, he said. An officer then opened fire, "worried about the safety of the individual trying to get out of the car," Camden said.
