Jurors reacted visibly to graphic footage of the final moments of Chicago Police Officer Ella French’s life as the trial began Tuesday for the man accused of shooting her and her partner during an August 2021 traffic stop.
Several members of the jury appeared shaken as they watched footage from Officer Joshua Blas’s body-worn camera showing French lying in a gutter near her squad car and her partner, Officer Carlos Yanez, lying on his back nearby.
One juror wiped tears from her eyes. Another closed her eyes briefly, but tightly, as video showed officers move Yanez, his face covered in blood, to the back of a squad car to rush him to the hospital.
French never appeared to move after falling to the ground.
She was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to her head. Yanez was shot several times but survived, though he will be “permanently disabled,” Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Clark told jurors.
“I’m sorry you will have to see and hear the things you are going to have to see and hear in this trial,” Clark had warned in his opening statement as the trial began for Emonte Morgan, 23.
Morgan is accused of opening fire on French and Yanez while the officers were conducting a traffic stop in West Englewood on Aug. 7, 2021.
“Why? Why did this happen?” Clark asked the jury. “It’s because the defendant had a gun in his waistband and he didn’t want to get arrested.”
Camera footage records stop, struggle, scream
The video played in court showed the officers pulling over a Honda SUV driven by Emonte Morgan’s brother, Eric Morgan, after the officers’ computer alerts them the car’s registration is expired.
French, Yanez and Blas approach the car, eventually asking the brothers and Eric Morgan’s then-girlfriend to step out of the car after they see what they believe is open alcohol.
French is seen patting down Eric Morgan when he suddenly pulls away and takes off running. Blas quickly pursues him.
At the same time, Yanez was repeatedly telling Emonte Morgan to put his phone away and to set down a cup he was holding. Morgan refused, and there was a struggle, with Yanez’s camera pressed close between the two men.
Prosecutors say Emonte Morgan pulled out his gun during the struggle and fired.
The camera attached to French’s vest was recording as she came around the back of the Honda to help Yanez, essentially putting the jury in her shoes as they watched Yanez and Emonte Morgan struggle from her perspective.
A scream can be heard, and French’s camera tilts upwards as the officer falls on her back and then lies still, the camera continuing to record, now only showing the curb of the gutter, a sliver of dark sky and tree tops. Moments later, Yanez’s labored breathing and groans can be heard.
Prosecutors say Emonte Morgan then fired at Blas, who had returned to the scene from his pursuit of Eric Morgan. Blas returned fire and wounded Emonte Morgan.
Morgan’s lawyers hint at possible line of defense
Emonte Morgan, wearing a light blue sweater over a collared shirt, watched the video intently but showed no reaction. Throughout the proceedings, he concealed his emotions, appeared calm and observant.
His attorneys appeared to suggest in their opening statements that Blas was the only person to fire a gun that night, suggesting a possible line of defense for Emonte Morgan as the trial moves along
But a still image from Blas’s body-worn camera appears to show Emonte Morgan pointing a gun at Blas before firing. Blas then shot back, striking Emonte Morgan twice.
Emonte Morgan ran off and allegedly handed the gun to his brother Eric, who had also briefly returned to the scene of the shooting. But Emonte Morgan quickly collapsed in the street. Eric Morgan was taken into custody in a backyard nearby as “good Samaritans” directed police to the gun, which was found dropped nearby, prosecutors say.
Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Hodel asked Blas if he had seen any muzzle flashes in the body-worn camera footage that would show Emonte Morgan firing at the officer.
Blas said he had not.
Hodel also asked several questions about when exactly the defendant allegedly fired at him, or whether Blas had fired first.
The defense attorney noted that audio from French’s body camera picked up a conversation between Blas and a lieutenant on the scene. Hodel asked Blas if he recalled describing the shooting to the lieutenant, saying “I come back. Brother’s here. He had a gun. I shoot. I think I hit him.”
Blas said he didn’t specifically recall.
Hodel asked why he didn’t say that Morgan fired at him at that time.
“It did not come up in my mind to say that,” he replied.
Pressed later by prosecutors whether Emonte Morgan had shot at him, Blas said he had. “I remember multiple shots.”
Woman in car, French’s mother also testify
Prosecutors also called Amanda Kirksy, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of Eric Morgan’s car when it was pulled over. She had recently begun dating Eric Morgan and had been staying at their house for about a week before the shooting.
Kirksy testified she was about 20 feet from the shooting when it happened, but couldn’t see who fired because her view was blocked by Yanez as he struggled with Emonte Morgan in the open passenger door. Kirksy said neither French nor Yanez has been rude or abusive to Emonte Morgan, and she didn’t see either officer holding a weapon.
When French’s camera footage was played for her, Kirksy began to cry. She said he had run when the shooting started.
“I was just scared. I was in shock. I didn’t really know what to do,” she recounted.
Kirksy testified she was planning to go to a police department in the suburbs where she said she felt safe to file a report, but she was taken into custody by Chicago police the next day before she could do so. She was later released without charges.
The first witness to be called Tuesday was Ella French’s mom, Elizabeth French, who identified her daughter in a widely shared photo of the young officer in uniform, smiling and holding a puppy.
Elizabeth French said she last talked to her daughter as she headed to work on the day she died. “She liked to call me on her way to work, to help pass the time,” the mother said.
As her daughter approached her district station, she told her mother she had to go.
“I said what I always said, that I loved her, to be careful and be safe,” Elizabeth French said.
Later that night, she said she received a call from police officials and was taken to the hospital.
