A Chicago Park District lifeguard displayed a “terrifying lack of judgment” when he shot two teenagers outside the Douglass Park pool Thursday night, a Cook County judge said Sunday.
The lifeguard, 55-year-old Charles Leto of Lake View, was charged with murder and attempted murder for allegedly killing 15-year-old Marjay Dotson and critically wounding 14-year-old Jeremy Herred. Leto also shot at a third teenager but did not hit him, authorities say.
Leto was charged Saturday with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Cook County Circuit Judge Luciano Panici Jr. ordered Leto held until trial on Sunday.
“This defendant is a terrifying threat to the community and the two teenagers he shot,” Panici said. “This defendant fired shots in a crowded park where families and kids are playing. … This defendant overreacted and endangered the lives of so many people.”
Jeremy remains in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck. The rising sophomore at UIC College Prep is a cousin of Laquan McDonald, the 17-year-old boy who was killed in 2014 by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Jayne Ingles, one of Leto’s lawyers, said Leto is a decorated Marine veteran without a criminal record who acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors said in court Sunday that Marjay, Jeremy and a 15-year-old boy were at the pool about 7 p.m. when Leto was leaving after a lifeguard shift. The third boy allegedly got into a brief argument with Leto, but it wasn’t violent or threatening, prosecutors said.
Leto then stopped on the sidewalk to fix his bike chain. He was looking in his backpack when Marjay walked past him on the sidewalk. Jeremy was behind him and the third boy was off the sidewalk on the grass, prosecutors said.
That’s when Leto pulled out a pistol and shot Marjay in the back. Leto then turned and shot Jeremy and fired at the third boy, who had his hands up and was walking backward away from Leto, prosecutors said.
Leto then called police and said he was attacked by the boys and shot them in self-defense. But prosecutors said witnesses and surveillance footage do not indicate he was in any immediate danger.
Ingles said Leto is originally from Michigan and served in the Marines in the late-1980s and early ’90s. He worked in finance until retiring in 2022 and moving to Chicago.
He took a job as a lifeguard not for the money, but to work with the community, Ingles said. Park district records show Leto was hired in June 2023 as a seasonal lifeguard at $16.19 per hour.
A Chicago Park District spokesperson said in a statement that Leto was placed on unpaid emergency suspension on Friday.
“We are working through the disciplinary process set forth by the collective bargaining agreement to take next steps,” the spokesperson said.
Ingles said that before the shooting a group of 10 teenagers approached Leto and “threatened him” when he was leaving the pool. She said one of them grabbed his bike and ran with it before dropping it.
He was in a “vulnerable position” on the ground when he shot the boys, Ingles said. She described the shooting as “neutralizing the threat.”
“He was trained to handle firearms and combat situations,” Ingles said. “He does not have poor judgment, and he does not have a history of recklessly discharging weapons.”
But the judge said that’s precisely why he shouldn’t have fired his weapon. Panici also said that he had watched the surveillance footage and did not think Leto was in any real danger.
“I would think that a veteran who has seen combat would not respond by firing at teenagers,” the judge said. “There was nothing here that rises to the level of needing to use a firearm.”
Community members told the Sun-Times that Leto has a history of anger issues at the Douglass Park pool and at Gill Pool in Lake View.
Paje Woods, a mother of five from East Garfield Park, goes to the Douglass Park pool regularly with her family. She was there Thursday evening before the shooting happened.
“I was at that pool every day that week,” Woods told the Sun-Times. “And every day he was walking around aggressively, yelling and screaming at kids.”
Leto wouldn’t admit kids without their parents citing a park district policy. Woods said many of the kids in the area have to come alone because their parents work. But even when parents accompany their children, Woods has overheard Leto asking to see their kids’ birth certificates before letting them into the pool.
“That is very demeaning,” Woods said. “The other lifeguards are great and nice, but they are clearly much younger than him and intimidated by him.”
On Thursday afternoon, when Woods’ 9-year-old daughter tried to get back into the pool after adult swim, Woods said Leto stopped her, grabbed her by the arm and made her cry in front of her mom.
“There is no excuse for you to shoot teenagers,” Woods said, “and there is no excuse for you to have a gun at a park around children.”