Mail.comMARKHAM, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago police officer had better and safer options than to fire beanbags to subdue a confused, knife-wielding 95-year-old World War II veteran, a prosecutor told the court Tuesday at the outset of the officer’s trial on a felony reckless conduct charge in the man’s death.
With all of their police equipment, training and “common sense,” Craig Taylor and the other Park Forest officers didn’t have to storm into John Wrana’s room at an assisted living center on July 26, 2013, Cook County State’s Attorney Lynn McCarthy said during her opening statements. They did so, though, and Taylor ended up firing five beanbags at Wrana, including the fatal one that struck his abdomen and caused internal bleeding, she said.
Taylor’s attorney, Terry Ekl, countered that Taylor did what he was trained to do to subdue a dangerous suspect who was coming at him with a knife. Wrana was determined enough that he kept coming at Taylor with a knife “over his head” until the final shot knocked it from his hand, Ekl told Judge Luciano Panici, who will decide the case.
Taylor, 43, could face up to three years in prison if he’s convicted. His trial comes amid heightened scrutiny of the use of deadly force by U.S. police departments, and there was a strong show of support by Taylor’s fellow officers Tuesday at the courthouse in Markham.
Unlike many criminal trials where there is a disagreement over exactly what happened, the prosecution and defense in Taylor’s trial agreed on the basic facts of the case in their opening statements. Taylor was one of several officers dispatched to the facility where Wrana lived after a staff member reported that Wrana had become combative with emergency workers.
Wrana had hit a staffer with his cane and was brandishing the cane and a 2-foot long shoehorn. After officers left the room, they soon returned, with one carrying a Taser, another carrying a shield and Taylor armed with a 12 gauge shotgun that shoots beanbags. It was then that Wrana threatened the officers and refused to obey their order to drop a knife he had picked up.
One officer fired the Taser at Wrana, but missed. When Wrana moved toward Taylor with a knife, Taylor fired his weapon five times, according to prosecutors. All of the shots were fired from no more than 8 feet away, said McCarthy, who told Panici that the “optimum distance” of 15 to 60 feet is spelled out in training standards and reminded the judge that each “projectile struck the 5-feet-five, 150 pound Wrana at about 190 miles per hour.
Wrana died from internal bleeding, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office, which ruled his death a homicide. One officer who showed to court in support of Taylor said that Taylor’s arrest is confusing to other police officers.
“There’s an outcry now for less lethal force in dealing with subjects and he used less lethal force,” said Mitchell Davis, the police chief in the nearby suburb of Robbins who once worked as an officer in Park Forest and said he knows Taylor. Davis said that while the incident had a “tragic outcome,” he believes Taylor acted properly.
As a result, he said, police officers are watching the case closely. But this case has not generated the kind of emotion that killings of unarmed black men, specifically in New York’s Staten Island and in Ferguson, Mo. Though Taylor is black and Wrana was white, neither attorney suggested race played any role in the shooting. Another factor is that the case is so unusual.
“This is so far afield from other cases that I don’t think it will have any wide ranging effect on police or have be any kind of deterrent to on-duty misconduct,” said Craig Futterman, a University of Chicago law professor who has studied and written about police abuse.
In IL. up till now. This is a new one. They let there cops drive drunk and high, beat people and frame them for it, and cover for them. They let there cops there run over people with there cars just for fun and chase them with there cars across private property. Not to make a arest. Just for there fun time. So this will be a new one on IL. police that there is any kind of law against there actions. Fromer resident of Sang. Co. IL.
So does this mean that a HERO is being put on trial for what he is trained to do?
“Though Taylor is black and Wrana was white, neither attorney suggested race played any role in the shooting.”
Why the hell do you have to bring in race for everything? It has nothing to do with the color of ones skin. This pig shot a 95 year old man with bean-bag rounds when all he had to do was use simple hand to hand defense or other non-violent ways to restrain him. The guy was 95 years old and you’re telling me a young cop can’t restrain or talk him down even if he has a knife? Pathetic.
I bet their “talking down” tactic (if they even used that tactic) was not to listen to the guy, but to order him to do something in an authoritative – “I am a cop and you will respect my authority” – tone rather than a calm one and thus exasperating the situation.
“One officer who showed to court in support of Taylor said that Taylor’s arrest is confusing to other police officers.”
Tying their shoelaces is confusing to other officers.
5 foot 5 and 150 lbs and you had to shoot him from 5 feet away, you made your non lethal weapon lethal by using it incorrectly. Why didn’t he just use it as a bat and clobber him with the buttstock to the head, the result would have been the same for the 95 year old.
I’m pretty fed up with police brutality, but have to play devil’s advocate here. What’s confusing to me is that more and more complaints are being made against cops who use supposedly non-lethal weapons. What do people want them to do -sing to suspects who are holding dangerous weapons?
That being said, I have worked in mental health facilities and we were trained in methods of safely subduing agitated clients. This training also included tactics to execute when we were faced w/an armed, deranged individual. Many of these police situations involve officers who are not trained to recognize the difference between a criminal intent on causing harm and a mentally off balance person. Or maybe they just don’t care anymore. And since most police escape prosecution for these killings, there’s little incentive for them to change their attitude. Let’s hope we see more accountability like this case.
I dont think he will get what he deserves
and if he does it will be to placate someone
but like every other cop , he will get paid admin leave, the internal investigation will say he did it by the book, and the “Just-Us” system will vindicate his actions and he will never spend a dime of his money or do a day for his crime
NEXT!
why do you think its come down to street justice on these bastards? ,, exactly why is because the rule of law is also done in this country