Chicago — Dakotah Earley, the culinary student who nearly died after being brutally shot during an armed robbery in Lincoln Park last year, is planning to sue the Chicago Police Department and the city, Fox 32 reported Tuesday night. The station said Earley’s lawyers would announce the lawsuit on Thursday.
Earley, 24, was walking home when an armed robber confronted him with a handgun in the 1300 block of West Webster early on May 6. Surveillance footage from a nearby home showed the robbery unfolding and the gunman shooting Earley at close range while demanding Earley’s phone PIN.
Nearly two weeks later, prosecutors charged 19-year-old Tyshon Brownlee with robbing and shooting Earley and participating in other armed robberies around the area.
Doctors did not initially expect Earley to survive. He spent months in the hospital, underwent several surgeries, and lost one of his legs due to complications from the shooting.
The legal basis for the lawsuit has not been announced.
CWB Chicago reported on May 17 that Chicago police terminated a pursuit of a BMW near the Museum Campus one hour before it was used by the men who robbed and shot Earley in Lincoln Park. Police also knew that the BMW had been taken in an armed robbery in Lakeview the night before, our investigation found.
Earley’s mother, Joy Dobbs, has been vocal about her dissatisfaction with CPD’s decision not to pursue the car.
In September, we reported that a Lakeview robbery victim and her attorney had uncovered Chicago police records that showed CPD was aware of Brownlee’s possible involvement in a growing pattern of armed robberies six months before he allegedly shot Earley.