CHICAGO (AP/WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A Chicago City Council Committee voted to recommend that the city pay nearly $1.7 million to a West Side woman and others pulled from a car by police officers in 2020 during unrest and looting.
Thursday's vote by the council's Finance Committee to settle Mia Wright's lawsuit sends the matter to the full City Council.
While the council routinely follows the recommendations of the committee, the committee's 13-7 decision could signal a close vote.
Wright was outside the Brickyard Mall amid the unrest in Chicago and around the country after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd when she was pulled from the vehicle.
Police said they stopped a car in which Wright, three other women and a man were riding because they believed one of them had just looted a store.
But an attorney for the city told aldermen there was no evidence of that, and the descriptions of the looters did not match the vehicle’s occupants.
Despite that, Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th Ward, opposed the settlement and suggested the five indeed were at the mall to steal. He argued there were closer stores to where the motorists lived.
Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, bristled at his comments, which she called biased. “Does it matter where I choose to shop?” she asked.