Two brothers have been charged in connection with a weekend shooting that killed one Chicago Police officer and seriously wounded another.
Emonte Morgan, 21, and Eric Morgan, 22, face a litany of felony charges in the Saturday shooting in West Englewood that killed Officer Ella French and left her partner fighting for his life at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Emonte Morgan was charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, two counts of attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County state’s attorney office. Eric Morgan was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice, the state’s attorney office said.
Both offenders are due in court Tuesday.
A third person had been taken into custody Sunday but no charges have been filed.
On Monday, federal prosecutors also filed criminal charges against an Indiana man who allegedly acted as the so-called straw purchaser of the handgun used in the shooting.
Jamel Danzy, 29, of Hammond, was arrested Sunday and is being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing set for Wednesday afternoon.
French, 29, and her partner — who were part of a three-officer car assigned to the Community Safety Team — were shot during a traffic stop after 9 p.m. at 63rd Street and Bell Avenue.
French’s wounded partner was still in critical condition Monday but was “incrementally improving,” Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said at a news conference Monday evening.
French and her partner had pulled over the car the brothers were driving Saturday night because it had expired plates, Brown said.
French and her partner struggled with Emonte Morgan near the trunk of the car and toward the front passenger seat of the car, which is where he was originally seated, Brown said.
“But for these types of traffic stops, our cities wouldn’t be safe ... officers put themselves in harm’s way stopping suspects like this so we can all sleep safely in our homes at night,” Brown said. “These are dangerous people who don’t mind killing officers or people in Chicago.”
As for a motive for the shooting, “We’re still working on it,” Brown said.
He added that police officers in Chicago were feeling discouraged, angry and alone.
“They feel alone, they feel unsupported they feel like no one appreciates the work they do. They’re human so they have a lot of expressions of discouragement, and I would just ask the people of Chicago to support their police officers with kind words of support,” Brown said.
He also said officers feel “a lot of anger towards what has been a consistent beatdown of them, not just on social media, from different parts of our society, just constant, constant criticism, hypercriticism to a certain extent.”
Police, Brown said, don’t get enough acknowledgment for the good that they do.
“It’s past time to stop this imbalanced treatment of police officers in Chicago and everywhere in this country. We’re flawed, just like this media gallery is flawed, just like every profession in our country is flawed, but they go down dark allies none of you would go down to protect you. They run toward bullets.”
