Murder Charges Filed In Cop's Death

By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 22, 2010 2:30PM

Murder charges have been filed against two suspects in the shooting death of Chicago Police officer Thomas Wortham IV. Paris McGee, 20, and Toyious Taylor, 29, have each been charged with a count of first degree murder and attempted armed robbery. Charges are pending against a third suspect who remains hospitalized, wounded by gunfire during the incident. CPD Supt. Jody Weis addressed the media last night but didn't comment on speculation by Lucille Floyd, the mother of Brian Floyd, the fourth suspect that was killed by gunfire during the incident, that the attempted robbery came about as a dare after a drinking game.

While police have not yet concluded who shot who in the incident - Wortham's father, a police veteran, came to his son's aid and reportedly fired a gun at the would-be robbers - Lucille Floyd expressed her dismay over her son's death to NBC Chicago and criticized Wortham's father:

"I don't feel like all those guys have to pay for that one mistake. You know, it was all a mistake on everybody's part, including the people that shot and the one's that died," Lucille Floyd said from her West Side home Friday night. "I feel like we need to let it rest and go on with our lives."

She stresses that the Wortham family has her condolences, but said that as an officer, the elder Wortham should have known how to shoot without killing somebody. "For him to shoot them they way he did, in cold blood... because being an officer, I feel like he should have had knowledge of how to hit those children without killing them," Floyd said.

A previously scheduled rally at nearby Cole Park, where the younger Wortham served as president of the advisory council, will go on as planned and honor Wortham.