Four years after they opened fire on a stolen vehicle driven by an unarmed car thief, a pair of Chicago police officers have lost their jobs.
Although Michael Coughlin Jr. and Jose Torres have maintained they fired on the stolen Jaguar because they felt their fellow officers were in danger, the Chicago Police Board didn’t buy their excuse — and on Thursday determined they violated department policy in the incident. It’s unclear whether the now-jobless men intend to appeal the ruling. The men weren’t the only Chicago police officers disciplined in connection with the 2016 incident. After the driver — 21-year-old Paul O’Neal — ditched the vehicle and fled on foot, Officer Jose Diaz gummed down the unarmed man. Diaz was then caught on camera kicking the dying man while screaming profanities at him. Diaz has since been suspended.
2 Chicago police officers were fired for their actions in a 2016 stolen car chase that ended with the fatal shooting of Paul O’Neal, an unarmed black teenager https://t.co/6JljYvXN7S
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 20, 2020
