Police oversight officials released video footage this week of an embattled Chicago cop shooting and paralyzing a man just months before the officer fatally shot another man during a foot chase that could cost him his job.
Videos released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability show Officer Fernando Ruiz firing at Raymond Comer 11 times on Aug. 12, 2022, as Comer sat in the driver’s seat of a friend’s car in the 2100 block of West Adams Street on the Near West Side.
Comer, 37, allegedly reached for a gun before Ruiz opened fire, according to a police report. Comer was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a gun possession charge in September 2023. He’s now serving a five-year prison sentence at the Robinson Correctional Center in southeastern Illinois, state records show.
Ruiz remains on active duty in the gang investigation section, according to a Chicago police spokesperson.
Last month, Chicago Police Board President Kyle Cooper ruled that Ruiz should face disciplinary proceedings to determine whether he should be fired over his deadly encounter with Reginald Clay Jr. on April 15, 2023.
Previously released body camera video shows Clay fleeing from officers in the 3800 block of West Flournoy Street until he runs into a blocked-off gangway. Clay is then seen turning toward officers with a gun before Ruiz opens fire.
COPA found Ruiz violated the department’s foot pursuit policy; failed to notify a dispatcher about the chase; failed to activate his body camera in a timely manner; and failed to use “de-escalation techniques.” While the allegation tied directly to the shooting was not sustained, the agency recommended that Ruiz should be fired.
Supt. Larry Snelling pushed back, arguing that COPA didn’t take into account the “reasonableness” of the chase or the “totality of the circumstances.” He pushed for a two-day suspension, but Cooper sided with COPA and adopted the agency’s recommendation.
A lengthy disciplinary history
Ruiz is now named in lawsuits filed by Clay’s family and Comer. In Comer’s case, brought a month before he pleaded guilty, his lawyers acknowledge he had a gun but claim that both his hands were visible and empty as Ruiz approached him.
Police arrived a few minutes after an officer manning a police surveillance camera spotted Comer put a handgun in the back pocket of his jeans as he hung out with friends on a porch, the suit claims.
The surveillance video shows a camera zoom in on Comer while he handles the gun, which remains in his pocket as he chats and leans on a fence.
After a few minutes, Comer walks over to a car parked in front of the house, climbs into the driver’s seat and begins maneuvering it closer to the curb while holding the car door open with his left hand. The door remains open as police SUV arrives and Ruiz jumps while it’s still moving and fires repeatedly into the car from just a few feet away.
A police report states that Comer grabbed a gun despite officers ordering him to stop, noting that the move placed cops “in substantial fear of receiving an aggravated battery that could result in death or great bodily harm.”
Comer’s lawsuit claims he never held or reached for his gun during the encounter and Ruiz never gave any commands before opening fire. Ruiz’s body camera audio doesn’t start until after he stops shooting, although other video captures the gunshots. Ruiz can be heard yelling, “Stop reaching!” Comer then struggles to the passenger door and drags himself out of the car onto the parkway.
Comer was paralyzed from the waist down, according to the lawsuit.
The oversight agency has closed the investigation into the Comer shooting, a COPA spokesperson said, but it remains in “post-review status.”
Following the fatal shooting of Clay, COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten urged then-interim Police Supt. Eric Carter to strip Ruiz of his policing powers.
In a letter dated May 4, Kersten noted that Ruiz was also under investigation in the shooting of Comer and six other cases, many of which involved allegations of excessive force. In one case, he was accused of planting drugs and making an unjustified arrest. In another, he allegedly pushed a woman while she was holding an infant.
Those cases and two others were administratively closed, while the allegations in another were deemed unfounded, records show. The disposition of the final case was unclear.