ROGERS PARK — The father of a 14-year-old boy who was fatally shot in the back by police last summer has filed a federal lawsuit claiming officers used excessive force.
Pedro Rios Jr. had been walking at about 10 p.m. on July 4 in Portage Park when police spotted an object protruding from the boy's waistband, police said at the time. When officers tried to question Rios, he reached for what turned out to be a .44 Magnum revolver, they said.
Police opened fire. Rios, a Gale Math and Science Academy student, was pronounced dead on the scene.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, 11 people were killed and about 60 wounded in shootings across the city.
The lawsuit alleges the officers in a marked patrol car chased Rios into an alleyway and struck him with the car. When an officer exited his vehicle, he shot Rios several times in the back, according to the suit.
The family and their attorney, Mark Brown, claim the officer used excessive force and that Rios was not a threat.
The city's Law Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
Last year, Pedro Rios Sr. said outside of the family's Rogers Park apartment that his son had just left a party when he was killed.
He said he didn't know where his son got the gun, but suspected he had been carrying it from one place to another for a gang.
"He was doing work for someone else," he had said, through a translator.
The family also spoke out against the city's gun violence and gangs.
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