CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lightfoot is calling the civilian Office of Police accountability tone deaf for including murdered police officer Ella French in a list of officers recommended for discipline in a botched raid.
COPA released its report Wednesday on the mistake in the 2019 raid on the home of Anjanette Young where she was videotaped, standing handcuffed and naked for several minutes.
Among the officers accused of violating police procedures mentioned in the report was Ella French partly for not wearing a body camera. French was killed while making a traffic stop in August.
Lightfoot said COPA should have left officer French's name out of the report.
“That to me seems the height of tone deafness. So yes, I am disappointed and I think that they could have taken different actions and particularly in light of the fact that Miss Young herself said that officer French showed her respect and treated her with dignity,” she said.
“It just doesn't make sense that COPA made this decision.”
COPA spokesman Ephraim Eaddy said the oversight agency’s “summary report and investigation” into the police raid on Young’s home was completed on April 27.
That’s more than three months before French, 29, was fatally shot and her partner, Carlos Yanez Jr., was critically wounded after they pulled over an SUV with expired plates at 63rd and Bell Avenue.
Eaddy has argued that COPA is compelled by city ordinance to “make reports open to public inspection” and can “only redact information to the extent it is exempted from disclosure” by the Freedom of Information Act.
Several aldermen have voiced sentiments similar to Lightfoot's.
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th), whose Far Southwest Side ward is home to scores of Chicago police officers, was incredulous that COPA would dare to besmirch the name of a fallen officer hailed by everyone for her bravery.
“It’s despicable. And then, they wonder why no one wants to serve as a member of the Chicago Police Department anymore, " O'Shea said.
"No one wants to become a Chicago Police officer. Another assault like this. Despicable. Ella French was a hero."
(WBBM Newsradio and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this copy.)
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