Unit 5: Community Protests Shooting By Police
Witnesses Claim Man Was Shot For Laughing At Police
POSTED: 5:05 p.m. CST December 11, 2002
UPDATED: 6:46 p.m. CST December 11, 2002
CHICAGO -- A southwest side community plans to take action after a young
man was shot by a Chicago police officer.
The officer clamed the shooting was in self defense, but the victim's
mother told Unit 5's Renee Ferguson that her son was shot because he
laughed at the police.
Crispus Booker (pictured, right) is no angel, Ferguson reported. He's done
six months in jail on a drug charge and lives in a tough, drug-infested
neighborhood. But, according to his attorney, Booker was shot by police
recently not because he was seen selling drugs, but because he dared to
laugh at a couple of cops.
The so-called "joke" ended with the 26-year-old Booker being taken away in
an ambulance, having been shot by a Chicago police officer.
"He has a hole in his liver, his lung collapsed on him and he's got the
bullet in him next to his spine," Martha Booker (pictured, below left), the
victim's mother, told Unit 5.
That was on Nov. 19. Eyewitnesses told Unit 5 that Booker was on his porch
at 68th Street and South Talman Avenue watching as two uniformed officers
chased a suspect on a bicycle. When the officers gave up the chase, Booker
reportedly laughed out loud.
Ferguson said that that's when, according to witnesses, the officers went
after Booker.
"At first, they just started hitting him and he pushed them and ran,"
Martha Booker said.
After shots were fired, Booker's mother said she arrived to find her son
on the ground.
"I asked the officer, 'Why did you shoot my son?' and he said, "Because he
shot at me.'"
But Booker's attorney, James Montgomery, said there was no gunpowder
residue on Booker's hands and no evidence he had a gun.
"Witnesses saw this thing from the beginning to the end and it's very clear
that it was an unprovoked attack and a shooting that was not justified,"
Montgomery said.
Police spokesman Pat Camden said the officer shot Booker because Booker
tried to take his gun and that the officer was in fear for his life. He
said two guns were found in the neighborhood.
Since the shooting, area residents say they have passed out fliers for a
community meeting to be held Wednesday night at the Marquette Park field
house.
"The community is outraged and everybody is mad. We're trying to take
action with the police department to see what can be done about this," area
resident Lashawn Greer told NBC5.
Booker went from the hospital to jail where he now sits, charged with
aggravated battery, possession of a weapon and attempting to disarm a
police officer.
"He laughed at the police," said Booker's mother. "This could happen to
anybody and it's wrong. It's really wrong."
http://www.nbc5.com/unit5investigates/1833300/detail.html
