Attorney Says Feds Investigating Shootings by Chicago Police

From the Chicago Sun-Times

An attorney who specializes in representing cops in court has warned the president of the Fraternal Order of Police about a federal investigation into shootings by Chicago Police officers.

Daniel Herbert, a former Chicago Police officer and former Cook County prosecutor, sent a letter Friday to FOP President Dean Angelo saying he learned the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office were looking into “certain police-involved shootings, specifically ones in which an offender’s gun was not recovered.”

Herbert, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office declined comment.

But attorney Craig Sandberg said he knows the FBI investigated the fatal 2011 shooting of Flint Farmer.

Farmer’s girlfriend had called 911 to say he’d severely beaten her and her child. Officer Gildardo Sierra, who responded to the call, fired 16 shots at Farmer, authorities said. A video showed Sierra shoot Farmer three times in the back while Farmer lay on the ground.

Farmer was holding a cellphone — not a gun — when he was shot. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office last year declined to file charges against Sierra, concluding that the officer feared for his life when he mistook the phone for a gun.

Sandberg represented Farmer’s estate in a lawsuit against the city, which agreed to settle the case for $4.1 million . . .

Click here to read the full story on the Chicago Sun-Times website.