By Lolly Bowean
Contact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
An Englewood man who survived being shot seven times by Chicago police two years ago filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday that seeks $15 million in damages, his attorneys said.
Dominiq Greer, 25, said an officer shot him during a chase on July 4, 2014, even though he posed no immediate threat. He acknowledged he was carrying a handgun when he was initially stopped by police and ran from the officers because he was afraid of them.
But he said he had tossed the weapon away when he was shot three times. Greer said he was shot another four times as he was struggling on the ground.
“The police, they’re really the gang,” he said at a news conference at his attorney’s downtown office. “They run the street right now. They do what they want to do.”
Greer’s lawsuit comes just days after the city released videos, reports and other materials from scores of investigations into allegations of excessive force by police.
At the news conference, Greer’s attorney, Eugene Hollander, played a video of Greer’s shooting. The city had not included video of Greer’s shooting among the materials it released last week, a fact Hollander criticized.
Hollander said he didn’t know why the video wasn’t made public by the city.
“The mayor said he wants to be transparent,” Hollander said. “Why don’t we put all of the (videos) online?”
The nearly two-minute black-and-white video has no audio. Greer can be seen running in an alley and trying to throw a handgun toward a building as he flees police. He then stumbles and falls — the point at which he is shot the first three times, Hollander said.
As Greer tries to get up from the ground, four uniformed officers can be seen approaching him with their weapons drawn. As Greer falls on the ground in a dark shadowy area, the officers shoot him four more times, he said.
It is difficult to tell from viewing the video when the shots were fired. Greer was struck in his right arm, right leg, left toe, back, chest, stomach and left arm.
Greer said he was conscious during the entire encounter and even questioned police as he lay on the ground after he was shot.
“I asked why is they shooting me this many times,” he said. “I thought I was about to die.
“If you had to shoot me to catch me … that’s bad,” he said.
lbowean@tribpub.com