Off-Duty Chicago cop shoots man assaulting her

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An off-duty Chicago cop shouted “I’ll kill you” before fatally shooting a man who grabbed for her gun during a struggle last month in Washington Heights on the South Side, video released Thursday shows.

“Didn’t I just say I’d kill you,” the officer says after the third and final shot is fired. “Didn’t I just say I’d kill you?”

The private surveillance footage, released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, initially shows Leevon Smith arguing with a group of people in the 1300 block of West 90th Street just before 1 p.m. on Jan. 18.

The off-duty officer eventually leaves an apartment building, tries to diffuse the conflict and urges those involved to “calm down.” The other people take off, but Smith sticks around and talks to the officer for just over a minute.

As she turns to head back into the apartment building, the video appears to show Smith reach for the officer’s handgun, setting off a struggle.

“I’ll kill you,” the officer yells before firing two shots.

“You got me. You got me,” Smith says.

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A day before Smith died, Cook County prosecutors approved felony charges against him, the arrest report shows. He faced counts of attempted robbery and aggravated battery, but the charges don’t appear in county court records.

Smith’s estate filed a lawsuit against the city and the officer on Feb. 3, pushing for a judgment of $10 million.

The officer, who isn’t named in the suit, allegedly used “excessive and violent physical force” and “knew or should have known that such force was not necessary in light of the circumstances,” according to the complaint.

The suit claims that Smith’s “estate was diminished by virtue of the medical and funeral expenses that were incurred,” adding that his family “suffered injuries as a result of his death, including, but not limited to, the loss of companionship and society, grief, sorrow and mental anguish.”

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