The Chicago Police Board has denied the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s recommendation to fire the officer who shot Anthony Alvarez in a high-profile case last year.
Alvarez, 22, was fatally shot by Chicago police Officer Evan Solano after a foot chase in Portage Park. Police Board member Steven Block reviewed COPA’s investigation and recommendation of separation and denied it.
The attorney for the Alvarez family, Todd Pugh, decried the choice in a statement Thursday.
“The Alvarez family continues to reel from Anthony’s death. They are appalled by Mr. Block’s decision to merely recommend a 20-day suspension of a police officer who COPA determined violated numerous policies and directives before killing Anthony Alvarez,” the statement read. ” … Today’s decision is not only a gut-punch to the Alvarez family, but it perpetuates the message that encounters with the Chicago Police Department remain potentially lethal.”
At Thursday night’s police board meeting, Block announced his decision to side with Chicago police Superintendent David Brown’s recommendation for a 20-day suspension for Solano.
Block, a partner at the law firm Thompson Hine and police board member since late 2021, wrote in his opinion of the case that Solano’s use of force was “objectively reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances as the officers reasonably perceived them” and he agreed with Brown that COPA’s evidence was “legally insufficient” to sustain that the officers acted against general orders when using force and engaging in the foot pursuit.
Block found that Brown’s proposal of a 20-day suspension was more reasonable than the chief administrator’s recommendation of firing the officer. Block only agreed with the allegations that Solano failed to activate his body worn camera in a timely manner, did not properly load his firearm or make a required notification to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications of the pursuit.
Block’s opinion noted that the officers had reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop of Alvarez based on their knowledge that he had been driving on March 29, 2021, with a suspended license and probable cause to arrest Alvarez based on how he held his waistband when he fled, leading the officers to believe he was illegally concealing a firearm.
Block also noted that the officers were familiar with Alvarez because both Solano and his partner Sammy Encarnacion had responded to a domestic call involving Alvarez and the mother of his child the previous April. That call resulted in Solano chasing Alvarez, who was detained without incident.
Block disagreed with COPA that Solano failed to use de-escalation techniques. Solano tried to minimize the confrontation by using “continual communication,” yelling at him to drop the gun and further warning that Solano was going to shoot could have prompted Alvarez to shoot first, Block found.
But because Encarnacion did not activate his body-worn camera until after Alvarez had been shot, footage of the foot pursuit captured by the camera was in buffering mode, which does not have audio. So Block credited the officers’ consistent testimonies to confirm the verbal demands directed at Alvarez during the pursuit.
Andrea Kersten, COPA’s chief administrator, said at the meeting that she stood by COPA’s investigation and findings. After the meeting, Kersten told reporters that she understands each case has its own merits and analysis that COPA as well as the board member takes. But COPA believes its important with cases “of this consequence” with large amounts of evidence that it should advance to the full police board instead of being up to a single member.
“We reached the conclusions we made because, based on the totality of the circumstances,” she said. “We felt that the officers’ actions put in motion the circumstances that led to this unnecessarily and that that is a big part of the reason why we reached the sustained finding that we did, particularly with respect to the ultimate justification or lack thereof as we found to use fatal deadly force.”
Kersten said the 20-day suspension is the final decision and COPA has no avenue of recourse or appeal.
Alvarez was shot while moving away from Solano, who was pursuing him and yelling at him to “drop the gun,” a video of the shooting released last year showed. Solano fired shots, and footage shows Alvarez drop a pistol as he fell to the ground. He was shot in the back and thigh, an autopsy later revealed.
His family filed a lawsuit in February alleging the city bears responsibility for his death partly because the Chicago Police Department did not have a policy on foot pursuits at the time. The family’s lawsuit states that Alvarez did not threaten the officers or anyone else, and police had no valid reason to stop him or chase him that night.
His death came just days after a different Chicago police officer fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo during a foot chase. The two shootings prompted protests and for the city to implement a policy on foot pursuits. In April 2021, Civilian Office of Police Accountability had recommended to Chicago police officials that Solano be relieved of his police powers during its investigation, an action that would require the officer to forfeit his badge and gun for work purposes while assigned to paid desk duty. He was stripped of his police powers in June 2021. COPA concluded its investigation on the Alvarez shooting in January.
In March, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced her office would not bring criminal charges against the officers involved in both the Alvarez and Toledo shootings. Foxx said at a news conference that prosecutors determined both officers reasonably believed they were in danger when they opened fire. Both Toledo and Alvarez were carrying guns on the nights they were shot.
The Police Department released its final version of a foot pursuit policy in June, which was in the making for over a year since the Alvarez and Toledo shootings.
The policy states that officers can only engage in a foot pursuit if there “is a valid law enforcement need to detain the person” that outweighs the dangers of the pursuit. Officers also must not start a chase or stop one for various reasons, such as if the officer becomes injured or a third party is injured and requires immediate medical aid; if the officer is unaware of their current location; and if the officer loses his or her radio or firearm. The policy also states that if an officer is alone, he or she should not start or continue a chase.
All officers will receive e-learning training on the new policy, and it will also be built into the department’s in-person 40 hours of mandatory training, according to police leaders. Robert Boik, CPD’s executive director of constitutional policing and reform, said the policy won’t officially go into effect until all officers have been trained on it, which will likely be by the end of the summer.
