Cop Who Shot At Car 16 Times Found Guilty Of Excessive Force In Momentous Ruling

By Stephen Gossett in News on Aug 28, 2017 10:49PM

The first Chicago cop to face federal charges for an on-duty shooting in more than 15 years was found guilty of excessive force on Monday afternoon. Officer Marco Proano—who fired 16 shots into a car filled with unarmed black teenagers in 2013—is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

In daschcam video obtained and published by the Chicago Reporter, Proano is seen firing into a car in which six black teenagers were riding in December of 2013. Proano appears to continue shooting as the car quickly backs up. Two teenagers were wounded in the shooting. One teen was later charged with driving a stolen car, but a judge ruled that prosecutors didn't prove he knew the car was stolen.

Proano's attorney, Daniel Herbert (who is also defending Jason Van Dyke on murder charges in the Laquan McDonald case), had argued that Proano feared for his life and that of another—the person seen partially hanging outside the car in the video. But the federal jury determined that the cop acted with excessive force in the shooting, which left nine bullet holes riddled in the vehicle.

"Marco Proano drew first, shot next and then he tried to justify it later," said Assistant US Attorney Erika Csicsila on Monday at trial, according to the Tribune.

Prior to the shooting, Proano faced at least 26 formal complaints, according to WBEZ. He was also named in four separate misconduct lawsuits in which the city paid out $384,500.

Proano faces a maximum sentence of 20 years—a max 10 years for both charges of which he was convicted, according to the Department of Justice.

The weeklong trial came at a time when the Chicago Police Department faces ratcheted-up scrutiny in the wake of the killing of Laquan McDonald, and January's scathing Department of Justice report, which determined that the department exhibited a pattern constitutional violations.