Photo Courtesy of COPA
One would-be thief paid the ultimate cost after he attempted to rob an off-duty Chicago police officer of her gun after he was involved in a verbal altercation with people in the neighborhood.
On January 18, surveillance footage captured the unidentified off-duty cop walking down the street in a South Side Chicago neighborhood. Leevon Smith had been arguing with a group of people before approaching the police officer. As the female law enforcement agent left a neighboring apartment building to get a handle on the verbal altercation, she told those involved to “calm down.” The crowd dispersed, but Leevon stayed behind.
As the off-duty cop and the man conversed, the suspect reached for her gun. During the struggle for the firearm, she fired two shots and could be heard saying, “I’ll kill you.”
Leevon relentlessly continued to wrestle the gun away from the officer.
“Didn’t I just say I’d kill you?” the off-duty cop asked after shooting him a third time. “Didn’t I just say I’d kill you?”
“You got me. You got me,” Leevon responded as he fell to the ground.
“I told your dumba***, I’d kill you.”
“Baby, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t want to die.”
As the man begs for his life, the officer screams for gathering neighbors to call the Chicago police. She turned back to Leevon, saying, “I told your dumb— I’d shoot you. You tried to steal my f**king gun. I don’t give no f**k about him. He just tried to rob me.”
Upon the ambulance’s arrival, a paramedic asked the off-duty police officer where the injured man was hit.
“Where’d you hit him?”
“I don’t know,” she replied.
The officer shot Leevon in the hand and stomach. On January 20, he succumbed to his injuries at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois. She was treated for a cut on her eye in Evergreen Park.
A 9-1-1 call revealed that someone told a dispatcher that Leevon had tried to rob an off-duty cop, and she shot him.
“There’s a lady outside with a gun, and she shot somebody. She’s going inside with the gun.”
“I’m trying to call my bosses, but ain’t no one answering for me,” the police officer said as she tried to get assistance from her superiors. “F**k it; I can’t believe this just happened to me.”
Cook County prosecutors were preparing a case against the deceased man before he died. He was facing attempted robbery and aggravated battery charges.
On February 3, Leevon’s family sued the City of Chicago for $10 million. The unidentified officer was accused of using “excessive and violent physical force” and “knew or should have known that such force was not necessary in light of the circumstances.”
His family further alleged that the monetary judgment should be given because of the financial loss that relatives incurred for the foolish man’s funeral and medical expenses. His loved ones also claimed that they’d suffered immeasurable grief and loss.