08/21/2021
A Chicago police officer has been charged with two felonies, for shooting an unarmed man during a clash at a CTA Red Line subway station last year.
Officer Melvina Bogard, 32, is charged with aggravated assault and battery and official misconduct on one count each in the shooting of Ariel Roman on February 28, 2020, at the Grand Red Line stop, according to the prosecutor’s office of Cook County State.
Lawyer Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez said Roman was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and suffered from a panic attack while riding a Red Line train that day.
Roman’s lawyers said that although he admitted to moving between the cars of a CTA train – in violation of the city’s ordinance – he did not commit any crime that would have warranted his arrest. He was not armed or a threat to the police or anyone else.
Chicago Police Superintendent, David Brown fired Bogard and her partner, Officer Bernard Butler, for violating the policies of several departments, calling the Roman shooting unnecessary, arguing that Bogard had violated department rules for deploying her Taser gun and then shooting Roman. Brown said this was unnecessary because Roman posed no deadly threat to her or anyone. Brown also accused Butler of violating departmental rules for the use of his Taser gun and failing to use approved de-escalation techniques to stop Roman. Butler has also been cited for putting Roman in danger for catching him at the edge of the subway platform.
“The officers – who are trained – should have relaxed, relaxed, and taken the time to call in reinforcements. The idea that an officer shoots his duty revolver twice is amazing,” Roman’s lawyer Andrew Stroth said last year.
Read more: tinyurl.com/CPDMelvinaBogardCharged
