An off-duty police officer shot and killed a man who tried to attack her and steal her gun, seconds after she repeatedly warned him, “I’m going to kill you.”
The incident happened on January 17 in Chicago. The woman in question is an officer in the city’s police force. Suspect Leevon Smith, 39, was shot three times in the stomach. He succumbed to his injuries three days later.
The officer originally tried to break up a fight between Smith and three others outside of an apartment building on the city’s notoriously violent South Side. After the others leave, video shows the officer and Smith conversing for a few seconds.
The moment the officer turns his back on her, Smith tries to grab a gun. They fight and end up wrestling with their shoes on the floor. Two shots can be heard, at which point he can be heard saying: ‘You got me, you got me.’
As she yelled for neighbors to call 911, the officer yells at Smith, “I told your stupid ass I’d kill you.” Then she fires a third and final shot.
The officer points her off-duty gun at Leevon Smith
“Damn, baby, I’m sorry. I don’t want to die,” Smith is heard saying.
“You thought I was playing, I told you I’d shoot you,” she replies. “I told your fool I was going to shoot you. You tried to steal my damn gun.’
“Didn’t I just say I would kill you? Didn’t I just say I’ll kill you?’ She adds.
“I told your fool I was going to shoot you. You tried to steal my damn gun. I don’t care about him. He was just trying to rob,” she calls out to her neighbors.
Finally, the officer herself called 911 and told the dispatcher, “Oh my god, he just tried to rob me. He just tried to steal my recreational gun.”
In the call, she poses as a police officer and says she tried to call her bosses but their calls went unanswered.
The officer has been in office since June 2022, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
Another officer arrives at the scene in front of an ambulance. This cop asks the shooter, “Where did you meet him?” “I don’t know,” she replies. ‘Fit. I can’t believe this happened to me,” she also said.
The officer, who has been in office since June 2022, presented himself with the suspect after the original fight ended
When the officer’s back is turned, Smith tries to grab her
The officer reacts immediately and begins to defend herself against her attacker
Eventually, the officer is able to gain the upper hand and gain control of her gun by shooting Smith point-blank
After wounding Smith, the officer sustained him for a time
After Smith fell, the officer stands over him, in the background you can see her crocodile shoe, which came off in the fight
The arrest report describes the preparation for the shooting as a “verbal altercation” and charges Smith with “attempting to disarm her.”
As a result of the shooting, the police officer was placed on administrative leave for 30 days. She was also treated for a laceration above her right eye.
A tactical account of the incident describes the officer in “imminent danger” when Smith attempted to retrieve her firearm. She has not been charged with a crime.
On a 911 call about the original argument, published by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, a voice can be heard saying, “Just give me my bag back, bro.”
Calling 911, a neighbor is heard saying about the shooting: “There’s a woman outside with a gun and she was shooting at someone. … She goes in with the gun.’
“The fight they had almost brought me to tears because she is a tiny little person. I’m glad she was able to pull herself together and do what she had to do to get out alive,” another neighbor who witnessed the shooting told Fox Chicago.
The official and the city are facing a $10 million lawsuit from Smith’s family alleging his fortune was “diminished” due to funeral expenses.
His family “also suffered injuries as a result of his death, including but not limited to loss of companionship and companionship, grief, grief and emotional anguish,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges the police officer used “excessive and violent physical force” and alleges she “knew or should have known that such force was not necessary given the circumstances.”
Before his death, Smith was charged with aggravated assault and attempted robbery. He was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.