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City Mulls $1.25M Settlement in Police Shooting Death That Sparked Melee

By  Ted Cox and Darryl Holliday | September 5, 2014 2:42pm | Updated on September 8, 2014 8:44am

 An angry crowd threw bottles and rocks at police after an officer shot and killed a man in Back of the Yards.
Police Respond to Angry Crowd After Officer Shoots Man
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CITY HALL — City attorneys have apparently agreed to a $1.25 million settlement in a December 2012 police shooting that caused a man's death and sparked a Back of the Yards street riot.

A settlement for $1.25 million in the case of Gwendolyn Moore, representing the estate of her son, Jamaal Moore, 23, is on the supplemental agenda for the Finance Committee meeting Monday.

Jamaal Moore was shot and killed by police in December 2012 on a Saturday morning after a high-speed chase came to an end at Garfield Boulevard and Ashland Avenue. According to police, five suspects in an armed robbery earlier that morning hit a light pole at the intersection at the end of the chase, then poured out of a sport-utility vehicle, and four escaped.

 Gwendolyn Moore discusses one of her suits filed against the city by attorney Sam Adam Jr. early in 2013.
Gwendolyn Moore discusses one of her suits filed against the city by attorney Sam Adam Jr. early in 2013.
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DNAinfo/Darryl Holliday

However, Police union spokesman Pat Camden later told DNAinfo Chicago he had "no idea if there was a robbery" and said only that "there was a possibility of a connection" to "a gray SUV." The SUV hopped a curb and crashed into a pole, knocking it down in front of a gas station at the South Side intersection.

Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Moore then engaged in a conflict with an officer, who was "thrown around like a rag doll." According to McCarthy, the officer warned a female partner Moore had a gun, and that officer shot him. McCarthy later said the gun turned out to be a flashlight.

The shooting prompted a street riot, with a crowd forming and throwing rocks and bottles at police; five men were charged with mob action as a result.

The following month, Gwendolyn Moore filed a federal suit against the city, represented by the high-profile defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. Both referred to the killing as an "execution," and the suit charged excessive force and wrongful death.

"I want the way the police operate to change. The way they handle and deal with the community needs to change," Moore's mother said in an in January. "I want justice for Jamaal."

Adam's firm and the city's Law Department both declined comment Friday on the settlement, pending formal City Council approval, which should come Wednesday if approved in Monday's committee meeting.

According to court documents, the suit originally sought damages "in excess of $75,000," and the settlement was reached in July.

The suit also named Chicago Police officers Ruth Castelli and Christopher Hackett as defendants.

Adam also filed a subsequent suit against the city on behalf of Gwendolyn Moore, charging that officers used the N word in referring to Jamaal Moore's body in the street, prompting the riot. That suit is not part of the proposed settlement.

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