Chicago’s police oversight agency has cleared a police officer who fatally shot a man after he tried to rob her of her firearm during an off-duty encounter outside her Washington Heights home, according to newly released records.
Video footage released by city officials showed that on the afternoon of January 18, 2023, a group of men and 39-year-old Leevon Smith walked down the 1300 block of West 90th Street, past the apartment building where Probationary CPD Officer Precious Dunn lived. About a block away, out of camera range, the men punched and kicked Smith while he was on the ground, until a witness yelled at them to stop, according to COPA. Smith then followed the group as they walked back up the street toward Dunn’s building.
Hearing the commotion, Dunn stepped out of her apartment building, and Smith asked to use her phone, COPA said. That’s when the three men approached her, with one warning that they would beat her if she gave her phone to Smith, according to the agency. Video showed Dunn fending off the group until they left. At one point, according to officials, one of the men displayed the butt of a handgun and threatened to shoot Dunn if she gave Smith her phone, prompting her to lift her shirt to show her own weapon. Smith apparently spotted Dunn’s firearm and formed an idea that would be among his last…