Trending Topics

Video shows LEO shooting armed man holding woman hostage

Newly released body camera video shows an intense scene unfold as Chicago officers responded to a hostage situation

By Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Newly released body camera video shows an intense scene unfold as Chicago police officers responded to a hostage situation at a Near West Side apartment building that ended with a sergeant shooting and wounding the suspect.

The city’s police disciplinary agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, has posted the footage on its website two months after the shooting took place about 6:20 p.m. on April 11 in the West Town community.

A police report provided by COPA alleged that Marcos Malvais, 19, dragged a woman to a bathroom in the basement of a house on West Washington Boulevard near North Hoyne Avenue and held her at gunpoint.

“We’ve got a hostage downstairs, Sarge!” one of the responding officers shouts in a video that shows a dark room lit by the officer’s flashlight. “He’s got a gun! He’s got a hostage!”

The officer then shouted at the suspect.

“Come on! Just let me (see) your hands, man,” the officer continues. “Come on man, let her go! It’s not worth going to jail, man! Come on!”

“Get some units to cover the other side, just in case,” another officer can be heard saying in a softer voice.

The first officer continues shouting at the suspect.

“Come on! I can make it easy for you. …Let’s go, bro! Come on, man! It ain’t worth it, man, I’m telling you!”

“Just drop your weapon and walk out!” another officer shouts.

“Just let me see the weapon, man. Make it easy!” the first officer exclaims. “This ain’t the way to go, man, come on!”

Suddenly, a gunshot can be heard and a woman starts screaming. Several officers are then heard shouting, “Shots fired” before at least one of them started walking downstairs and into a basement.

Sgt. Joseph Menoni was in the basement and saw a woman being dragged into a bathroom, according to the sergeant’s camera footage. His gun pointing outward from his right hand and a flashlight pointing outward in his left hand, Menoni walked to the bathroom and stopped briefly before turning toward its entrance, the footage showed.

That’s when the sergeant saw the victim on the bathroom floor where Malvais was crouched in a bathtub, according to the arrest report.

The report states Menoni saw Malvais raise his arm and point a semi-automatic handgun at him. Menoni’s body camera footage shows him appear to fire his weapon at Malvais before the camera shuts off.

According to footage from one of the other officers, three more gunshots are heard as the woman screams.

“Let me see your hands!” an officer shouts as the woman continues to scream. “Let me see your hands!”

“Put your hands behind you!” another officer can be heard shouting.

The arrest report shows the sergeant fired his gun four times, striking Malvais who then dropped his gun.

Footage shows Menoni hunch down in the bathroom to restrain Malvais, who appeared to be moaning in pain.

“Stop f------ squirming around,” one of the officers says.

Malvais, who was taken via ambulance to an area hospital, was arrested on several felony charges including attempted murder, aggravated battery, home invasion, aggravated kidnapping, armed robbery and unlawful use of a weapon, Cook County court records show. He is being held without bail in the Cook County Jail and has pleaded not guilty.

©2018 the Chicago Tribune

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU