CHICAGO — The Independent Police Review Authority has released video from a March 14 incident that left three officers wounded and a suspect dead on the West Side.
The night of the incident, the officers were on a narcotics patrol when they chased Lamar Harris, 29, into a gangway, police said. Harris shot at them, wounding three officers.
Officers returned fire, fatally hitting Harris. They later said he was a gang member who had seven convictions and who had been arrested 43 times.
The video from IPRA shows how police reacted to the incident, with a large number of officers responding and speaking over the radio. At one point, police can be heard talking about one of the officers who was injured, noting that policeman was 33 years old and had been shot in the middle of his back.
A second officer was shot in his right heel and another in his chest that night. According to officer's battery reports released with the video, police described the shooting as an "ambush — no warning."
Those reports show a fourth officer reported being shot at, though he was not hit, during the encounter.
Watch the video:
The video and details in the case were released as part of a massive data dump by IPRA on Friday, showing documents and videos in more than 100 Chicago police misconduct cases.
The release comes after Mayor Rahm Emanuel's appointed Police Accountability Task Force called on the Chicago Police Department to acknowledge racism and fight the "code of silence" that keeps officers from being held accountable.
That task force also called for videos to be more readily released to the public, within 60 to 90 days.
The massive release of videos includes many open cases, some of which are the subjects of lawsuits. At a news conference Friday, IPRA boss Sharon Fairley stressed that videos do not paint a complete picture of what happened in each incident, and many lack context.
“It's really important for you to keep in mind that these materials may not convey all of the facts and considerations that are relevant [to an officer's conduct," she said.
