Sobs broke out in a Cook County courtroom Tuesday as prosecutors for the first time played video of a traffic stop where Chicago Police Officer Ella French was killed and her partner seriously wounded.
The excerpts from the officers’ bodycams show the chaotic moments when Emonte Morgan allegedly drew a gun from his waistband and fired at French and Officer Carlos Yanez more than three years ago.
“French,” a third officer on the scene yells repeatedly. “Yanez. Stay with me.”
The videos were shown during a hearing to finalize the evidence a jury will see and hear as the 23-year-old Morgan goes on trial next week. Jury selection is set for Monday.
The court had previously ordered the city not to release any materials from the shooting until the criminal case was over. The videos played Tuesday were displayed on a television that was positioned toward attorneys, rather than the courtroom’s gallery.
Morgan’s lawyers asked Judge Ursula Walowski to limit some audio from the videos that they argued was overly prejudicial to their client and that they said contained hearsay statements.
Prosecutors said they have already muted some audio they agreed could be prejudicial, including comments made by Yanez as he lay wounded that were directed to his family.
But they asked that jurors be able to hear statements made by the third cop at the scene, Officer Joshua Blas, as he reacted to seeing French and Yanez wounded.
Walowski said she would allow those portions of the audio to remain, ruling they were “highly relevant evidence.”
Walowski had also ruled against other defense motions at a previous hearing, including denying a request to bar uniformed officers from the courtroom’s gallery and audience members from wearing memorial T-shirts or pins during the trial.
The videos that will be played for jurors show the beginning of the traffic stop on Aug. 7, 2021. Yanez asked the three people inside the vehicle to step out after he said he saw an open container of alcohol.
Morgan was allegedly armed with a handgun that he bought through a straw purchaser in Indiana.
Morgan had been holding a drink and a cellphone when he exited the car and allegedly ignored repeated instructions to set them down, according to prosecutors.
On the video, Yanez is heard telling Morgan to put his phone on top of the car or in his pockets. There’s a struggle and Morgan allegedly drew the gun from his waistband and shot French and Yanez.
Several people openly cried as the videos were played in succession, ending with footage from Blas’ body camera. Blas had been chasing Morgan’s bother, Eric Morgan, after he ran from the stop before the shots were fired.
Blas, after hearing the gunfire, returned and exchanged shots with Emonte Morgan, hitting him. Emonte Morgan then allegedly handed the gun to his brother, who ran and was later held for police by community members as he fled through a residential backyard.
French and Yanez were rushed to the hospital but French did not survive.
Eric Morgan, 25, pleaded guilty in October to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and obstruction of justice and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
After the hearing, Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara said the officers had conducted a “by the book” stop, noting that the officers were polite and even apologized at times to the people in the car.
