An 18-year-old man was charged Thursday evening with shooting and killing Chicago Police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso in Gage Park, according to a CPD media statement.
Steven Montano, who was shot in the head by Vasquez-Lasso during an exchange of gunfire as police investigated reports of an armed domestic incident, remains hospitalized and critically wounded.
More details about what officials believe happened in the 5200 block of South Spaulding around 4:54 p.m. yesterday are expected to be revealed during Montano’s bond hearing on Friday afternoon.
Montano is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and aggravated discharge of a firearm near a school, which are all felonies. Prosecutors also filed misdemeanor charges of interfering with a domestic violence report and assault, police said.
As CWB Chicago reported early Thursday, Montano was one of three people arrested last summer after Chicago police allegedly saw them run from a car that had been used in a recent shooting. A CPD report documenting his July 2022 arrest said he is a Latin King gang member.
The car’s driver was charged with multiple felonies, and a 15-year-old boy who ran from the vehicle was charged with shooting the 29-year-old victim.
But prosecutors in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office felony review unit rejected felony charges that investigators wanted to file against Montano, including illegal gun possession and aggravated battery, according to Chicago Police Department records. Instead, he faced only a misdemeanor resisting charge, which prosecutors dropped four months later.
Later on Thursday, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx issued a statement about her office’s charging decision.
“[Montano] was not charged with a felony because the evidence does not support a charge of gun possession for this offender,” Foxx said. The misdemeanor charge against Montano, who had no criminal background, was dismissed after he completed a 25-hour community service program, according to Foxx.
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