A Chicago police officer who fatally shot a Black man in the back during a foot pursuit is now under investigation for drawing his gun on a driver during a road rage confrontation.
Multiple witnesses recorded video of a driver get out of his SUV and threaten Officer Evan Solano, who gets out of his personal car with a gun drawn while dressed in his police uniform, and confront the other man, reported Block Club Chicago.
"Take your f*cking car and back the f*ck up!" the SUV driver shouts. "If you can't do it, I'll do it for you! I'm not in two lanes, I'm in one lane! I'll rip you out of the f*cking car!"
The SUV driver had been partially blocking an intersection during the May 21 incident, and Solano repeatedly honked his horn.
The man backs down immediately after Solano jumps out of his car with his handgun, according to the videos.
"Dude, I have no weapon," the man says. "I did not touch you!"
Solano claims the man threatened him with a knife, which the other driver denied, and witnesses said the man had a knife strapped to his leg but never removed it or made reference to it.
"I did not threaten you at all," the man shouts. "You pulled a gun on me!"
Bystanders eventually persuaded the officer to put his gun away and leave, but he challenged witnesses before getting into his car.
"Did you not catch him yelling at me the whole time?" he says to some witnesses.
The incident is under investigation by internal affairs, and Solano was already under investigation for the March 31 killing of 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez during a hot pursuit in the Portage Park area.
Body camera video shows Alvarez carrying a gun, but he never raised it or pointed it during the chase, and Solano fired at least five shots as he ran, striking the Black man in the back and left knee.
"When stitching [these videos] together with the videos of shooting Anthony Alvarez, this is just an out-of-control individual that should not have been patrolling the streets and carrying a firearm," said Todd Pugh, an attorney for the family. "We know that COPA continues to investigate the killing of Anthony Alvarez, and I would hope that COPA would place this incident under consideration in their investigation into the Alvarez shooting."
Driver Argues With Chicago Copwww.youtube.com
Driver Argues With Chicago Cop 2www.youtube.com
