Scar by scar, former Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez on Wednesday documented the injuries he suffered after being shot repeatedly during a 2021 traffic stop that claimed the life of his partner, Officer Ella French.
With a slow swinging gait, a lasting result of his wounds, Yanez crossed a fifth-floor courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse to take the stand on the second day of the trial of the accused gunman, Emonte Morgan.
Once sworn in, Yanez leaned over and showed jurors an impression on the top of his head where one of the bullets hit him after he, French and another officer stopped Morgan and his brother in West Englewood because the car’s registration was expired.
His right eye had to be removed, Yanez said, and there is a lump on his neck, below his right ear, where a bullet remains because doctors believe that was the safest course.
“They told my family it could be dangerous [to remove the bullet],” he said. “So they said it’s not hurting. It should not be removed.
“I currently have tinnitus,” Yanez added from the list of maladies he continues to suffer from the shooting. “Like a fire alarm going off constantly.”
Yanez said he can’t recall parts of the traffic stop, although he has watched body camera footage of it. What he does remember is lying on his back.
“As I was trying, fighting to breathe, I heard gunfire right above me,” Yanez said. “I heard [his partner Joshua Blas] screaming, ‘Yanez, Yanez. French, French.’’’
He said he remembered being lifted and carried to a squad car that rushed him to the hospital. “The second officer I heard was like, ‘Pick him up, pick him up’ and they moved me to a vehicle,” he recalled.
When he awoke, there where tubes in his mouth, and he couldn’t speak. It would take more surgery and two months in a hospital in-patient facility before he could be escorted out in a wheelchair, he said.
When prosecutors asked him to detail the struggle it has taken him to be able to walk unassisted into the courtroom, Yanez said it took nearly a year of intensive outpatient therapy before he could even use a walker to get around for short distances.
Watching body-cam videos of the shooting in court appeared to take an emotional toll on Yanez. As the first video played, the former officer slowly drew a deep breath. Frequently he wiped his eyes with a tissue and at times rubbed his shoulder roughly with his palm, as if trying to relieve an ache.
Throughout his testimony, Yanez looked to the ceiling and let out deep breaths to maintain his composure.
Morgan, 23, faces counts of murder and attempted murder, among other charges, for allegedly killing French and critically wounding Yanez.
“Thank you for coming today, I know it’s been incredibly hard,” Assistant Public Defender Ryan Carlsen acknowledged to Yanez on cross-examination.
Carlsen noted Yanez’s testimony about being trained to alert other officers to the presence of a gun and asked if Yanez heard himself do so on the videos. Yanez said he did not.
Carlsen also asked several questions about how his injuries might have affected what he could see and hear on the scene.
“You couldn’t see at that point?” Carlsen asked.
“Correct,” Yanez said.
Asked if his hearing was affected at that moment as well, Yanez responded quietly that, in the moments after he was shot, “I have no clue what the extent of my damage was.”
Prosecutors also called a nearby resident who heard the shooting while having a barbecue with his family. He said Emonte Morgan’s brother, Eric Morgan, jumped a fence and ran into his backyard as he fled the traffic stop.
The resident, who testified with help from a Spanish-to-English translator, said Eric Morgan initially put his hands up when he told him to stop, but then struck him with “a metal object” when he went to grab Eric Morgan.
He then held Eric Morgan for police. The handgun used to shoot the officers was allegedly found nearby, according to prosecutors.
Eric Morgan had run from the traffic stop before his brother allegedly shot French and Yanez. Blas, the third officer at the scene, chased Eric Morgan and was in the process of taking him into custody when Blas heard gunfire. He rushed back and allegedly confronted Emonte Morgan, exchanging gunfire.
Prosecutors have said Emonte Morgan was shot twice by Blas, but was able to run off and meet up with his brother. Emonte Morgan collapsed on a sidewalk and Eric Morgan took the gun, but was held by residents in the backyard.
Prosecutors also called former Chicago Police Officer Daniel McAuliffe, now a firefighter for the village of Oak Lawn who was one of the first officers on the scene after the shooting.
Body camera footage played in court appeared to show Emonte Morgan being taken into custody as he lay on a sidewalk on Bell Avenue near 63rd Street, not far from where the shooting occurred. McAuliffe was then seen jumping a fence into the neighbor’s backyard, where he said he stood near the gun to secure it for evidence technicians.
Eric Morgan pleaded guilty in October to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, battery with a deadly weapon and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, the maximum allowed for the charges.
