A federal jury on Tuesday rejected claims and awarded no damages to a man who brought a lawsuit over his February 2020 shooting by a Chicago police officer inside a CTA Red Line station.
The shooting followed a lengthy struggle during a rush-hour commute.
The jury deliberated for a little less than two hours at the end of the seven-day civil trial. In the end, the panel answered a call from the officer’s attorney to “send a message” to Ariel Roman, the man who’d been shot, that his actions on the train platform were “inexcusable.”
Jurors repeatedly watched video of Roman’s struggle with two officers on Feb. 28, 2020, during which the officers also used Tasers and pepper spray to try to subdue him. Officer Melvina Bogard, who shot Roman, told them she feared he’d push her onto the train tracks.
She also said she worried he had a weapon in his jacket, which he’d reached for repeatedly.
While Bogard acknowledged she intentionally fired the first shot, she testified that a second shot she fired at Roman, as he ran up an escalator, was accidental.
Bogard once faced criminal charges over the shooting. But she was cleared in 2022 by Cook County Judge Joseph Claps. She resigned from the Chicago Police Department in April 2023, a CPD spokesperson said.
Roman faced a lower burden of proof Tuesday with his civil claims against Bogard than prosecutors faced in her criminal trial. Roman also brought a failure-to-intervene claim against Bogard’s partner, Bernard Butler, who was cleared by the jury along with Bogard.
Roman and his attorneys left the Dirksen Federal Courthouse without commenting. They’d sought $5.3 million from the jury, arguing that Roman never posed a threat to the officers that justified the use of deadly force.
A spokesperson for Chicago’s Law Department said “the city is pleased with the jury’s verdict.” During closing arguments, Bogard attorney Timothy Scahill told jurors they should reject the idea of a payday for Roman after he fought with officers and refused to abide by their commands.
Scahill called Roman “the reason why everyday citizens are scared to ride the train in this city.”
Roman first crossed paths with Bogard and Butler when they spotted him moving between train cars shortly after 4 p.m. on Feb. 28, 2020. Roman’s attorneys say he was trying to avoid an argument between people on another car.
Much of what happened next was captured either on CTA surveillance video or a bystander’s camera.
Bogard and Butler confronted Roman on the Red Line train, and the three of them stepped off at Grand to have a conversation. Their chat began calmly but devolved into a struggle — first near the train tracks, and then against a wall near a set of escalators, with Roman on the ground.
The officers tried to subdue Roman using Tasers and pepper spray during the roughly five-minute struggle. Eventually, after Roman got back on his feet and wiped pepper spray from his eyes, video captured Bogard shooting Roman once with her gun. Roman then ran up the escalator, with Bogard in pursuit.
Another shot was heard just before Roman collapsed at the top of the escalator. Bogard followed behind him, and she could be heard declaring “b—- f—ing down.”
“At no point was Ariel Roman a threat that would necessitate getting shot,” Brian Orozco, one of Roman’s attorneys, told the jury during opening statements.
Bogard testified that, in the moments before the first shot, she felt the situation had gone “way too far.” She and her partner had already tried less lethal options, their radios weren’t working in the subway station, and she knew “no one else was coming to assist” them.
She noted that Roman had reached repeatedly for his jacket during the struggle. Bogard said she didn’t know why, but she feared a weapon might be hidden inside. Instead, it contained drugs, records show.
Early in the confrontation, Bogard said she’d also seen Roman “yanking” Butler toward the train tracks. She said she feared Roman might also try to push her onto the tracks.
“I thought I wasn’t going to make it home that night if I didn’t shoot my firearm the first time,” Bogard told the jury.
Bogard testified that she did not intentionally shoot Roman the second time. She said she’d been pursuing him up the escalator with her gun in her hand, until eventually she heard a gunshot.
“It was an accident,” Bogard testified.