The Chicago Police Board voted Thursday to suspend an officer for one year for his role in the 2020 shooting of an unarmed man during an arrest at a CTA Red Line station.
The board, during its monthly meeting at CPD headquarters, voted 5-4 in favor of suspending Officer Bernard Butler without pay.
Former Supt. David Brown had recommended Butler and his partner, former Officer Melvina Bogard, be fired in 2021.
Administrative charges were filed against the officers alleging Bogard’s high-profile shooting of Ariel Roman was unnecessary.
Bogard resigned from the police department before a disciplinary hearing could be held, and the police board voted unanimously in favor of dropping the charges against her Thursday because it no longer had jurisdiction.
On Feb. 28, 2020, Butler and Bogard were assigned to a unit to prevent crime on the CTA when they spotted Roman going between cars on a moving northbound Red Line train, a violation of CTA rules.
Roman got off the train at the Grand Red Line stop and was followed by the two officers. Bogard and Butler tried to arrest him at the foot of the escalator leading up to the station’s main concourse, but Roman struggled with Butler and was eventually able to stand up. Both officers deployed their stun guns during the encounter.
Following Butler’s order to open fire, Bogard fired once at Roman as he stood just a few feet away at the base of the escalator. Roman ran up the escalator, and Bogard fired again.
Roman, who was 34 at the time, was shot once in the hip and once in the buttocks. He was taken into custody and briefly faced resisting arrest and narcotics charges. Those charges were later dropped.
A bystander’s video of the officers struggling with Roman before Butler orders Bogard to “shoot him” quickly drew harsh criticism.
According to a written ruling on the decision, Butler said during disciplinary hearings this year that he meant for Officer Bogard to shoot Roman with pepper spray when he yelled at her to “shoot him.”
Last year, a judge acquitted Bogard of felony aggravated battery and official misconduct charges in the shooting. Bogard claimed she was trying to protect herself when she fired at Roman as he ran up the stairs at the station after breaking away from her and her partner.
As the meeting started Thursday, board president Ghian Foreman made a statement on a ruling earlier this month that threatened to cut the police board’s disciplinary power, saying that if allowed to take effect it would be a “serious setback” for police accountability in Chicago.
The decision will allow police officers accused of the most serious wrongdoing — and recommended for firing or suspension of longer than a year — to bypass the board and take their cases to an independent arbitrator, who might be more sympathetic to their arguments.
“This decision will drive these cases behind closed doors at a time when it’s never been more important to increase the public’s confidence in the process for handling allegations of police misconduct, and to build greater trust between police and the communities that they serve,” Foreman said.
