Chicago police officer who shot man in CTA Red Line station in 2020 is hit with criminal charges

CHICAGO — It was a shooting by a police officer in a busy CTA station downtown last year, scattering Red Line commuters at rush hour and leaving the Chicago Police Department to again confront the conduct of some of its own captured on a viral video.

On Thursday the officer who fired at a man during a lengthy struggle on the Grand Avenue platform was hit with felony criminal charges, still a rarity in Chicago. Melvina Bogard, 32, is the first Chicago cop in about five years to face criminal charges stemming from using a weapon while on duty.

Bogard, who joined the department just a few years before the February 2020 shooting, was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct. She turned herself in Thursday and was ordered released on her own recognizance by a Cook County judge.

Reaction to the shooting by city officials had been swift last year, no doubt spurred by the quick dissemination of cellphone video taken by a CTA customer. Mayor Lori Lightfoot immediately called it “extremely disturbing” and disciplinary charges came within weeks.

The city’s conversations about policing, already fraught, would reach a tipping point just months later amid unrest after the police killing in Minnesota of George Floyd.

Prosecutors on Thursday described an excruciatingly lengthy and public fight on the platform that ended with 33-year-old Ariel Roman being shot twice: Once as he stepped toward Bogard, then again as he was fleeing up an escalator.

Assistant State’s Attorney Kenneth Goff told the judge in court that the single count of aggravated battery against Bogard is intended to apply to the first shot fired. Bogard’s attorney Tim Grace said the shooting was a matter of clear-cut self-defense.

The most recent case of any officer being charged in an on-duty shooting in Cook County was in 2017, when a Metra police officer was charged in a fatal shooting. LaRoyce Tankson was acquitted of murder at a bench trial last year.

In 2017, Officer Marco Proano became the first Chicago cop in decades, if not ever, to be sentenced to federal prison for an on-duty shooting. He had been federally charged the previous year for firing 16 times into a moving vehicle filled with teens in December 2013. Two people were wounded.

And in a case that grabbed national headlines, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated battery for the 2014 on-duty fatal shooting of teenager Laquan McDonald. That shooting was captured on police video that also went viral.

Bogard and her partner, Bernard Butler, were patrolling the Red Line that afternoon and noticed Roman passing between train car doors while the train was moving, Goff said in court Thursday.

The officers stopped to talk to Roman, who told them he had anxiety issues and wanted to switch train cars because someone in the other car was bothering him, Goff said.

When the train stopped at Grand, the officers asked Roman to step onto the platform and asked him for identification, Goff said. Roman turned away from the officers and opened his backpack, at which point Butler grabbed him by the sleeve to turn him back toward them, according to Goff.

Roman then pulled away from the officers, who pulled him back, and a lengthy struggle ensued. They ordered him to stop resisting; he repeated that he “didn’t do nothing,” and he grabbed at the officers and stiffened his arms. Both officers discharged their Tasers to no apparent effect, and at one point Roman got hold of Butler’s Taser and handcuffs, Goff said.

Bogard tried to call for backup, but the transmissions from the underground CTA station did not go through.

After about three minutes, Bogard used her pepper spray on Roman, but the spray also affected Butler, who was nearby, according to the prosecutor. Roman got to his feet, and Bogard stepped back, saying she was going to shoot him, Goff said. Butler held on to Roman, and told his partner to go ahead, Goff said.

Bogard drew her weapon and told Roman to show his hands, and Butler stepped away from Roman. Roman stepped forward and wiped his eyes, at which point Bogard fired, shooting him in the “chest/abdomen” area, Goff said.

Roman then ran up the escalator, with Bogard and Butler in pursuit. Bogard had her gun in her right hand while she ran up the escalator, and “the firearm discharged a second time,” shooting Roman in the hip. He collapsed at the top of the escalator platform, Goff said.

Police later found drugs in Roman’s jacket and backpack, but no weapons, Goff said.

Grace, Bogard’s attorney, noted that she has been an officer since 2017 and has no disciplinary history at the department. The shooting was a clear case of self-defense, he said, alleging that Bogard was outmatched in the “brawl,” her partner was incapacitated by the pepper spray, and she could not summon backup.

“Melvina is 5 feet tall, 125 pounds soaking wet,” Grace said, who contended Roman was inebriated during the confrontation. “She’s used all force options that are available, he advances toward her, she’s alone. … She can’t run, she can’t get taller, she must defend herself.”

Bogard has cooperated with Cook County prosecutors as well as federal authorities, who were investigating the incident, Grace said.

In a statement after court, Grace said it was “difficult to comprehend” how Bogard finds herself charged with a crime.

“Mr. Roman refused to comply with verbal commands, he actually was able to get one of the Tasers in his hand, and resisted to such an extent that he bent the hardened steel handcuffs,” the statement read in part. “He was not going to be placed into custody and he was not going to follow the lawful orders of law enforcement. Mr. Roman alone placed himself and Officer Bogard in a very dangerous and life-threatening situation.”

Roman filed a federal lawsuit after the incident, alleging he was suffering from an anxiety attack when he was “harassed, chased, tackled, pepper-sprayed, Tasered and shot twice” without justification by Bogard.

The officers, both cops since November 2017, face allegations of numerous rule violations, ranging from bringing discredit to the department and engaging in an unjustified verbal or physical altercation, to incompetency or inefficiency during the performance of their duties.

The two officers eventually are expected to face an evidentiary hearing before the Chicago Police Board, a nine-member panel that ultimately decides whether officers should lose their jobs.

The next status hearing at the police board for Bogard and Butler is Oct. 18. By then a police board hearing officer presiding over the disciplinary case could decide whether to pause the case so it doesn’t risk interfering with the criminal proceedings.

Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the Police Department, confirmed the matter is pending.

“In April of this year, Superintendent David Brown recommended Officer Melvina Bogard be discharged from the Chicago Police Department,” Ahern said in a statement. “The officer was relieved of police powers in March 2020. At this time, we defer any inquiries about criminal charges to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.”

In April 2020, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates shootings involving Chicago cops, released more than a dozen video and audio clips from the shooting.

While the cellphone video was seen within hours on social media, the COPA footage provided closer views of the struggle between Roman and the two officers, as well as the scramble afterward as police tended to the man and passengers squeezed by Roman as he lay on the floor.

“Please let me go,” Roman can be heard saying. “I didn’t do nothing to you. I didn’t do nothing to you.”

“Stop resisting,” one of the officers answers, repeating it nearly a dozen times. Butler then yells, “Shoot him.”

By this time, Roman can be seen standing up and bending down to pick up his coat. He appears to stagger toward a railing in one officer’s direction, and a shot is fired.

Both officers chase him, and a second shot is fired. “Get down,” the officer who fired yells. “Get (expletive) down.”

The video clips also show a quick, heavy response of officers who tend to Roman while paramedics are on the way.

“Where’s all the blood coming from,” one officer can be heard asking as they search for the wound.

“Keep breathing, guy,” an officer says. “Hey, man, breathe, breathe, breathe.”

Greg Kulis, one of Roman’s lawyers, wondered why it took so long — nearly a year and a half — for Cook County prosecutors or any law enforcement agency to bring criminal charges in the case. But he still applauded them for doing it.

“I think it’s very, very clear in reviewing the video that a crime was committed by (Bogard),” Kulis said Thursday. “And I think it’s quite clear that Mr. Roman’s civil rights were violated in the actions that Officer Bogard took.”

Asked how Roman is doing currently, Kulis said “not very well,” and that he might need a third surgery regarding some “internal issues” that could be connected to the shooting.

“He’s not doing great,” he said. “And, you know, with some of the things that have happened over the last year and a half, or so, regarding police actions and shootings and other matters, every time he sees a story like this, it kind of brings him back to that day.”

_____