Chicago Mayor Praises Fallen Officer in Weekend Shooting

CHICAGO—With the Saturday shooting death of Chicago police Officer Ella French and wounding of her partner continuing to reverberate across the city this week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed the emotion of the moment Wednesday by praising French, criticizing the media and speaking to her relationship with rank-and-file officers.

Lightfoot, speaking at a news conference on the city budget, called French “an incredible person” who was extraordinarily hardworking, committed and dedicated to service over self.

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“Her mother said that she loved the job,” Lightfoot said. French was killed Saturday night during a traffic stop in the West Englewood neighborhood, a shooting that left her partner critically injured.

Lightfoot criticized the media for reporting on an incident where a group of officers turned their back on her while she visited the hospital where the two officers were taken after they were shot.

Asked about the incident at the University of Chicago Medical Center, Lightfoot said feelings there ranged from despair to anger and rage, which is to be expected. But Lightfoot did not specifically address the question.

Asked generally if officers should ever turn their back on the mayor of Chicago, Lightfoot lamented the state of civic discourse in America and said it’s “a larger question than what may have happened with 10 or 15 officers.”

“It’s, why do we think it is OK for people to engage in such nasty, vicious talk orally or worse on social media?” Lightfoot said.

The mayor also was asked about reports including in the Chicago Sun-Times that First Deputy police Superintendent Eric Carter on Saturday night ordered French’s body taken directly to the morgue instead of stopping for a ceremonial bagpipe procession.

Lightfoot said there was a “well-meaning but not well-organized” group that wanted to “hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue.”

The procession did take place. Carter was focusing on the family’s needs, Lightfoot said, calling him an “incredible public servant and a dedicated veteran who “takes his job very seriously.”

Lightfoot’s comments came a day after the mother of two brothers charged in connection with the French shooting was arrested after she tried to enter the hospital room of one son wounded in an exchange of gunfire during the fatal confrontation. According to Oak Lawn police, the woman approached the room, which was under police guard.

Police in the suburb said they responded to a disturbance call at Advocate Christ Medical Center at about 8:30 a.m. Evalena Flores, identified as the mother of the brothers, allegedly tried to enter the room of Emonte Morgan, 21, who is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and weapons offenses in the killing of French.

Two Chicago police officers outside Morgan’s room and one of the hospital’s officers stopped her, but in doing so, she allegedly kicked the hospital officer in the groin, according to authorities.

Flores continued to resist while demanding to see her son, police said.

Flores was charged with misdemeanor offenses that include battery, resisting a peace officer and criminal trespassing, police said. Flores is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 15 at the Bridgeview Courthouse.

A Facebook live video posted to an account under the name “Marsia Outofthebox Braidy” about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday shows a woman filming her perspective of entering what appears to be a hospital. Oak Lawn Police Division Chief Gerald Vetter said the video “is of interest to our investigation.”

“I’m trying to see my son,” the woman can be heard saying in the video. “Emonte Morgan. My son. I want to see my son.”

“Monte! Monte!” she screams as she appears to rush down a hallway. As uniformed officers approach her, she can be heard yelling, “Don’t touch me! Get away from me! ... Please let me see my son!”

Someone else is then heard saying, “Put your hands behind you. You’re under arrest.”

“Monte, I love you!” the woman can be heard crying out as she appears to be ushered away.

On Saturday night, French and her partner had their service weapons holstered when Emonte Morgan allegedly shot them both at close range during a struggle during a traffic stop in West Englewood. He is accused of then exchanging fire with a third officer before running and giving the weapon to his brother Eric, 22.

Emonte eventually collapsed with two gunshot wounds, Cook County prosecutors said Tuesday. He was taken to the hospital in Oak Lawn.

Eric Morgan faces weapons charges as well as a count of obstruction of justice. Both men were ordered held without bond in separate hearings Tuesday.

French died of a single gunshot wound to the head. Her wounded partner was still in critical condition Tuesday, with a bullet lodged in his brain as well as gunshot wounds to the eye and shoulder, prosecutors said.

In another video made under the same Facebook account that the Oak Lawn police were investigating, a woman who identifies herself as the mother of the Monte brothers says, “There is another side and my boys’ side is not being told right now. I cannot speak too much on it, but I will say this: Don’t believe everything you hear and see. It’s fictitious. And there is another side. My boys are not monsters.”

The woman continues and says that she does not believe the Chicago police narrative of the shooting and that her sons were probably afraid to be pulled over by police because they’re young Black men.

“We fear our police here, unfortunately,” she said. “We fear them. We don’t believe in them. We don’t trust them. They get behind us, our hearts drop, we scared. That’s just the reality of it.”

Also Wednesday, the law office representing Anjanette Young, a Chicago woman who is suing the city after she was forced to stand handcuffed and unclothed in her home after Chicago police officers raided the wrong residence in 2019, sent out a statement Wednesday that Young is mourning the loss of French.

French was called to Young’s home after the raid and allowed Young to get dressed in the privacy of her bedroom, the statement said.

“Officer French was the only officer who showed Ms. Young any dignity or respect on the night of the raid,” the statement said. “Ms. Young is praying for Officer French’s family and offers her sincerest condolences to them and all of Officer French’s friends and colleagues.”

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