A Chicago Police Department officer was charged on Thursday with aggravated battery and official misconduct for an incident that involved the nonfatal shooting of Ariel Roman in February 2020.
Melvina Bogard, 32, turned herself in to investigators, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office. She was later released on her own recognizance by Judge Susana Ortiz during a bond hearing Thursday afternoon.
Roman had previously filed a federal lawsuit after he was shot at the Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Grand Avenue station. In his suit, he alleges he was having an anxiety attack when Bogard and fellow officer Bernard Butler "harassed, chased, tackled, pepper-sprayed, tasered and shot" him twice.
The state's attorneys office has not filed charges against Butler, since it is alleged that Bogard was the officer who shot Roman twice. Roman's attorneys said, in the lawsuit, he was hit with bullets in the hip and buttocks.
A cellphone video of the shooting was shared widely on social media. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), a group which investigates shootings involving Chicago cops, also later released more than a dozen video and audio clips of the incident.
Roman was said to be walking between train cars on the afternoon of February 28, 2020, which led to the officers attempting to arrest him. They followed him off a train and struggled to take him into custody.
Video released by COPA shows the officers telling Roman to stop resisting arrest while pressing on top of him. Roman asked to be let go and said, "I didn't do nothing to you."
Footage also shows the officers deploying stun guns before Roman runs up the stairs. In one video of the incident, Butler is then allegedly heard yelling "shoot him" to Bogard before she opened fire.
After he was shot, other officers arrived and tended to Roman until paramedics arrived.
"I think it's very, very clear in reviewing the video that a crime was committed by (Bogard)," Greg Kulis, one of Roman's lawyers, said Thursday. "And I think it's quite clear that Mr. Roman's civil rights were violated in the actions that Officer Bogard took."
The Chicago Tribune reported that along with the criminal charges against Bogard, she and Butler both face disciplinary action and potential dismissal from the police force. They two could be cited for rule violations that include discrediting the department, engaging in an unjustified verbal or physical altercation, and incompetency or inefficiency during the performance of their duties.
