Michael Elam Jr. was supposed to graduate from West Town Academy on Friday.
Instead, his mother will receive the diploma for her son, who was shot and killed in February by a Chicago police officer.
On Thursday, his family sued the officer and the city.
“I still cannot believe that he is truly gone. ... Our whole family is heartbroken,” Elam’s mother, Alice Martin, said through tears during a press conference Thursday at her attorney’s office.
“We’re just looking for answers,” she added. “We want justice for my son.”
Elam, 17, was shot and killed by the officer on Feb. 16 in the 2100 block of South Keeler.
Before the shooting, Elam was in the driver’s side back seat of a car that officers tried to pull over for speeding and headlight violations.
At the time, police said the driver refused to stop and soon after crashed into a nearby fence.
After the crash, Elam and the others in the car — four people in total — tried to run away. An officer then opened fire on him, striking him three times in the head and back.
The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges police used excessive force. It also claims the two officers who were pursuing the car waited more five minutes to call an ambulance for Elam after he was shot.
Police said that two guns were recovered from the scene, but the lawsuit contends Elam was unarmed. Jeffrey Neslund, one of Martin’s attorneys, said the guns were found in the street and under the driver’s seat in the car.
Neslund added that Elam and his girlfriend, who both held steady jobs, were on their way to IHOP for a belated Valentine’s Day celebration when the shooting occurred.
City records show the officer alleged in the lawsuit to have fired the fatal shots joined the CPD in 2014 and has never been accused of misconduct. The suit also claims the officer’s body-worn camera was never on during the brief pursuit and shooting. The officer’s partner, though, turned on his camera, though it did not capture the shooting itself.
The four-count lawsuit alleges excessive force and wrongful death. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said Thursday that the office had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined to comment.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability has not issued its findings in the case.
