The Chicago Police Board voted Thursday to suspend an officer for one year for his role in the 2020 shooting of an unarmed man during an arrest at a CTA Red Line station.
The board voted 5-4 in favor of suspending Officer Bernard Butler without pay.
Former Supt. David Brown had recommended that Butler and his partner, former Officer Melvina Bogard, be fired in 2021.
Administrative charges were filed against the officers saying Bogard’s high-profile shooting of Ariel Roman was unnecessary.
Bogard resigned from the Chicago Police Department before a disciplinary hearing could be held, so the police board no longer had jurisdiction to impose any disciplinary action.
On Feb. 28, 2020, Butler and Bogard were assigned to a unit to prevent crime on the CTA when they spotted Roman going between cars on a moving northbound Red Line train, a violation of CTA rules.
Roman got off the train at the Grand Red Line stop and was followed by the two officers. Bogard and Butler tried to arrest him at the foot of the escalator leading up to the station’s main concourse, but Roman struggled with Butler and eventually was able to stand up. Both officers deployed their stun guns during the encounter.
Following Butler’s order to open fire, Bogard shot once at Roman as he stood just a few feet away at the base of the escalator. Roman ran up the escalator, and Bogard fired again.
Roman, who was 34, was shot once in the hip and once in the buttocks. He was taken into custody and briefly faced resisting arrest and narcotics charges. Those charges were dropped.
A bystander’s video of the officers struggling with Roman before Butler ordered Bogard to “shoot him” drew harsh criticism.
According to a written ruling on the decision, Butler said during disciplinary hearings earlier this year that he meant for Bogard to shoot Roman with pepper spray when he yelled at her to “shoot him.”
Last year, a judge acquitted Bogard of felony aggravated battery and official misconduct charges in the shooting. Bogard claimed she was trying to protect herself when she fired at Roman as he ran up the stairs at the station after breaking away from her and her partner.
As the meeting started Thursday, police board president Ghian Foreman made a statement on an arbitrator’s ruling earlier this month that could limit the board’s authority, saying it would be a “serious setback” for police accountability.
The decision would allow police officers accused of the most serious wrongdoing — and recommended for firing or suspension of longer than a year — to bypass the board and take their cases to an independent arbitrators and not be decided in public.
“This decision will drive these cases behind closed doors at a time when it’s never been more important to increase the public’s confidence in the process for handling allegations of police misconduct and to build greater trust between police and the communities that they serve,” Foreman said.
