Chicago’s police oversight agency is expected to release video footage today from the fatal CPD shooting of a 22-year-old man in Portage Park on March 31, according to the Chicago Tribune. The family of Anthony Alvarez viewed the materials privately at the Chicago Office of Police Accountability offices yesterday evening.
“I saw a Chicago police officer shoot [Alvarez] as he ran away from them,” said Todd Pugh, an attorney who viewed the video and other records with the man’s family.
Alvarez’s family arrived at COPA’s offices just two hours before hundreds of Chicago cops began reporting for work on their scheduled day off by order of CPD First Dept. Supt. Eric Carter.
CWBChicago reported exclusively Tuesday morning that Carter canceled days off for more than a thousand officers assigned to specialized teams and district tactical units. Carter told police leaders in a message Monday that the city would implement its “retail corridor protection plan” beginning at 5 p.m. yesterday, too.
Carter’s message did not say why officials were activating the plan, which is designed to “ensure our city’s retail corridors are protected in the event of future unplanned, large-scale incidents of civil unrest.”
On Tuesday afternoon, CPD Chief Communications Officer Don Terry said the department “is closely monitoring the events across the country. While there is no actionable intelligence at this time, out of an abundance of caution, CPD will be deploying additional resources across communities citywide, neighborhood retail corridors and the downtown business district.”
Terry confirmed that days off have been canceled for citywide response units and other specialized teams.
Carter also ordered all 12,000+ Chicago cops to wear uniforms at work beginning yesterday, but he stopped short of implementing 12-hour shifts — at least for now. His order remains in place until further notice.
On the national scale, North Carolina authorities recently showed a limited amount of police bodycam footage to family members of Andrew Brown Jr., who was recently shot to death by deputies there. Two deputies who were at the shooting have since resigned, and another has retired, CNN reported. Seven other deputies have been placed on administrative leave.