NORTH CENTER — The death of a woman shot by police officers Friday night highlights problems with how Chicago Police Department officers use stun guns and deal with those who may be suffering a mental health crisis identified by the Justice Department investigation released a month ago.
Michelle Robey, 55, was shot by police Friday after they were called to the CVS drugstore at Irving Park Road and Western Avenue. Employees of the store called police when Robey began destroying items, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
When officers arrived, Robey — who officials said was armed with a knife — was outside the store. She made threatening statements, despite efforts by officers to calm her down, and lunged toward officers, Guglielmi said.
Officers used a Taser on her twice, Guglielmi said.
"That had no effect," Guglielmi said.
"She continued to advance after that, making threatening statements toward the officers," prompting them to shoot her, he said.
Robey, of Hollywood Park, died of a gunshot wound in her abdomen.
The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating, and the officers involved have been placed on administrative duty for 30 days under police policy.
Federal investigators found that officers routinely deployed stun guns "against people who posed no threat."
"Among the most egregious uses of deadly force we reviewed were incidents in which CPD officers shot at suspects who presented no immediate threat," according to the report. "We found also that CPD officers use force against people in mental health crisis where force might have been avoided."
READ THE FULL DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REPORT HERE
Guglielmi told the Tribune on Sunday that Robey may have been trying to purposely get officers to shoot her because she was suicidal. On Monday, Guglielmi referred all questions about the incident to the police review authority, whose spokeswoman did not return an email message.
The 161-page federal investigation found several incidents when officers deployed their stun guns against people suffering a mental health crisis that were similar to Friday's incident.
"CPD's documentation of these incidents is often insufficient to determine whether the force was necessary, appropriate or lawful," according to the report. "Consequently, all we know are the broad contours of terribly sad events — that officers used force against people in crisis who needed help."
Those incidents include "a 65-year-old woman suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia" who officers used a stun gun to subdue, according to federal investigators.
Officers have used their stun guns about 600 times per year over the last five years, according to the report.
Although the police review authority has the power to investigate those incidents, in 2010, it "stopped investigating all but a few of the Taser uses — in particular, those accompanied by a citizen complaint," according to the report.
City officials "created a system in which no one assesses whether Tasers are being used appropriately or effectively," according to the report.
Guglielmi said Monday it was unclear why the Tasers had no effect on Robey.
It "could have been a variety of issues," Guglielmi said.
The federal investigation was prompted by the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald. A dashcam video of his death sparked outrage and widespread protests.
One of the first things Mayor Rahm Emanuel did in response to that outcry was to order all officers to have access to a Taser and be trained on how to use the weapon, which fires barbs attached by wires to batteries, causing temporary paralysis.
But officers were not properly trained to use the devices in the field, federal investigators found.
"CPD, however, quickly cycled large numbers of officers through poorly designed training," according to the report. "As a result, officers were not effectively taught how or when to use the Taser as a less-lethal force option."
The stun guns used by Chicago officers can also be used by holding them against their targets without firing the projectiles. That ability — which causes pain but does not incapacitate a subject — is frequently abused by officers and should be restricted by Police Department officials, according to the report.
The Police Department's stun gun policy should be revised to limit the weapon's use on "vulnerable people" including "people in mental health crisis," the Justice Department report says.
Emanuel has vowed to overhaul the way the Police Department responds to calls about people who may be suffering a mental health crisis in response to the December 2015 deaths of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones.
Jones, 55, was shot and killed when officers responded to a domestic disturbance call involving LeGrier, 19, on Dec. 26, 2015. Police also shot and killed LeGrier, a college student who was outside his Austin home.
"The city must do more to ensure that effective, well-trained 'crisis intervention' officers respond to these events," according to the report.
Three days after the Justice Department announced its findings, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson hosted a news conference to tout a new collaborative effort to ensure that everyone from 911 dispatchers to police, paramedics and hospital staff responds appropriately to a call involving someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
The federal investigators applauded Emanuel's "ambitious plan to quickly increase its cadre of officers who have received the 40-hour crisis intervention training."
Since the beginning of 2015, the Police Department has received a fivefold increase in calls involving thosesuffering a mental health crisis, according to the report.
But the Police Department's effort needs more support to be sustainable and should be expanded to include enough officers to cover the entire city around the clock.
No officers trained to respond to someone suffering a mental health crisis were dispatched to the incident involving Robey, Guglielmi said.
"The call was not dispatched as a person with mental illness. The CVS employees may not have known her mental state," Guglielmi said.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions — in his new role as the chief of the Justice Department — is tasked with overseeing the negotiation of a legally binding agreement — known as a consent decree — to reform the Police Department.
During his confirmation hearing, Sessions expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of such consent decrees.
