Two brothers have been charged over the shooting murder of Chicago police officer Ella French as the city’s police clash with its mayor over the horrific killing.
Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
His brother, Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice.
The charges were announced by the Chicago Police Department on Monday evening with the Morgans due in court for a bail hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
They were arrested over French’s murder as it emerged police at the University of Chicago Medical Center where the dead cop’s partner was being treated turned their backs on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she paid a visit Saturday.
Lightfoot was also verbally attacked by the father of French’s partner, who remains critically-ill in hospital. She is said to have been left ‘shaken’ by the incident, which came after Chicago cops accused her of failing ‘to have their back’, with Lightfoot calling for an $80 million cut to her city’s police budget in October 2020.
Alderman Anthony Napolitano – himself a former cop – said that while he did not see Lightfoot as anti-police, she needed to shoulder blame for encouraging defund the police activists which he says left the city’s cops badly demoralized.
Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office
Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice
Napolitano told the Chicago Sun Times: ‘I never saw her as an anti-police advocate. But I will put this 550 percent on these socialists and these progressives in the City Council. This blood is on their hands, without a doubt.
‘They’re the ones who created this whole anti-police movement that has made these brazen acts of violence against police officers [possible] — 39 this year alone. This is created by them. This whole defund and disrespect movement that they have started.
‘These pieces of s**t are the ones that created this and talk anti-police. And they’re the ones begging for more police in their communities. They’re the biggest hypocrites. They disgust me.’
He spoke as it was also revealed that a woman who was in the car with the Morgan brothers has not been charged due to lack of evidence.
Federal prosecutors Monday charged an Indiana man with purchasing and then illegally supplying the semi-automatic handgun used in the shooting.
Officer French, 29, was killed during the shooting at a traffic stop on Saturday night. The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over.
Her death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since Lightfoot took office and the first female officer fatally shot on the job there in 33 years.
Ella French’s death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office
Officer Ella French as killed during the shooting at a traffic stop
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown takes a moment as he provides an update on the shooting of two police officers in West Englewood during a news conference at the Chicago Police Headquarters
Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown give an update during a news conference at the Chicago Police Headquarters in Bronzeville
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown announced the murder charges against two brothers on Monday
In the exchange of gunfire, one of the brothers was shot and wounded.
They are due in court on Tuesday.
At the time of the shooting, both brothers were on probation for separate cases.
Emonte Morgan pleaded guilty to robbery in Cook County court last year.
He also has other criminal charges on his record, including minor traffic offenses such as leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle without a license and driving uninsured.
He was also charged with battery and theft in 2019.
Eric Morgan pleaded guilty to theft in Dane County, Wisconsin, according to public records.
Jamal Danzy, 29, of Hammond, is accused of buying the weapon from a license gun dealer in Hammond, Indiana, in March and then providing it to an Illinois resident who Danzy knew could neither buy nor possess guns because of a felony conviction.
The person who received it was in a vehicle from which someone shot the officers Saturday night during a traffic stop and that the same gun was recovered from the person by arresting officers, a statement from the US attorney’s office in Chicago said.
Danzy, of Hammond, made an initial appearance Monday afternoon in US District Court in Chicago on conspiracy to violate federal firearm laws, including knowingly transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident and knowingly disposing of a firearm to a convicted felon.
‘We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others,’ the department said of French on Facebook, adding that fellow officers will ‘grieve the loss of this hero.’
The conspiracy conviction carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert ordered Danzy be held at least until a Wednesday detention hearing.
Chicago has for years sought to stem the inflow of guns that has helped fueled persistently high homicide rates in the city, especially from nearby states like Indiana, where guns rules aren’t as stringent.
City, state and federal authorities have made illegal gun trafficking a high priority.
‘We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others,’ the department said of French on Facebook, adding that fellow officers will ‘grieve the loss of this hero.’
The department also requested support for French’s ‘wounded partner, who is in the hospital fighting for his life.’
Officer French’s brother also shed some more light on who his sister was.
“She’s my sister, she’s my little sister. And as much as I was there for her when we were growing up, she was there for me. And I was proud of her, I’m still proud of her…God took the wrong kid,’ he told the Chicago Tribune.
The officers had stopped a vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9pm Saturday on Chicago’s South Side, when a male passenger opened fire, said Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.
Investigators said the officers had demanded one of the suspects get out of the car.
There was a physical altercation and the suspect then opened fire, shooting both officers.
Officers returned fire, striking the passenger who appeared to fire back at them, said Brown. He did not release the condition of that man.
When asked about the condition of the injured officer, Brown responded, ‘Critical. We need your prayers.’
The superintendent said it was too soon to say why the vehicle was stopped and what might have happened just before the shooting began. He said available evidence included police body camera footage. A gun was also recovered at the scene.
A large crowd of officers gathered outside the hospital’s ambulance entrance overnight, some hugging and praying, as Lightfoot first addressed the shooting to reporters nearby.
Lightfoot said the officer who died ‘was very young on the job, but incredibly enthusiastic to do the work.’
More than a dozen Chicago police officers have turned their backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot after one of their own was shot dead and another gravely wounded
As she spoke, more than a dozen police officers turned their backs on the Mayor.
‘A mother lost her daughter last night,’ Mayor Lightfoot said. ‘A brother, his sister. A family, forever shattered. Another continues to keep vigil at a hospital bed, sending up powerful prayers but no doubt fearing the worst.’
The brazen display unfolded around midnight on Saturday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where cops were holding vigil for the officer injured in the shooting, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
French’s partner, an injured male officer, who has not been publicly identified, was shot twice in the head and is still fighting for his life.
On Saturday night, Lightfoot approached a group of grieving officers on the 7th floor of the hospital, where they anxiously awaited any news on their colleague’s condition, but the cops suddenly spun on their heels to face away from her, two sources who were present told the Sun-Times.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Lightfoot acknowledged that ’emotions run high’ in a time of tragedy, but added ‘now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting.’
CPD officers pay their respects outside the hospital where the wounded officer is being treated. There are no known images of cops turning their backs on Lightfoot
Moments before the back-turning incident, Lightfoot had approached the father of the injured officer, himself a retired Chicago cop, who yelled at her and blamed her for the shooting, the sources said.
One of the sources told the newspaper that Lightfoot remained calm in the face of the father’s outrage and listened to him with respect.
‘The mayor was present at the emergency room to offer support and condolences to the families involved and the hundreds of line officers and exempts who were there, which she did,’ a spokesman for Lightfoot told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘In a time of tragedy, emotions run high and that is to be expected. The Mayor spoke to a range of officers that tragic night and sensed the overwhelming sentiment was about concern for their fallen colleagues,’ he added.
‘As the mayor stated yesterday, now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting. This is a time for us to come together as a city,’ the statement said.
No photos or video have emerged of the scene in Chicago, which was reminiscent of a 2014 incident in New York City, where hundreds of cops turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio after two officers were shot and killed in a cold-blooded ambush.
At a press conference moments after leaving the hospital,’ Lightfoot told reporters: ‘It’s very sad. We must remind ourselves every day, our officers are fearless in the face of danger. They run to danger, to protect us.’
‘It’s a very sad and tragic day for our city,’ added the Democrat, who proposed cutting $80 million from the CPD budget amid ‘defund the police’ demonstrations last year.
The proposal was later scaled back and Lightfoot has denounced the ‘defund’ movement, but Chicago’s police union still issued a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the mayor earlier this year.
‘The police are not our enemies,’ Lightfoot said later on Sunday. ‘We must come together… We have a common enemy: It’s the guns and the gangs.’
Chicago police officers salute as a procession for a police officer who was shot and killed drives by the Cook County Medical Examiners Office on Sunday
Chicago Firefighters hang an American flag from firetruck ladders, outside the Cook County Medical Examiners Office on Sunday to honor French as her remains pass by
Chicago police officers stand at attention as a procession for a police officer who was shot and killed earlier during a traffic stop at 63rd and Bell drives by
Lightfoot urged Chicagoans to end the acrimony between police supporters who believe cops are hamstrung by bureaucracy, and opponents who want to see police departments defunded or abolished.
‘Stop. Just stop,’ she said. ‘This constant strife is not what we need in this moment.’
John Catanzara, the president of the Chicago police union, told the Sun-Times that the officers’ decision to turn their backs on Lightfoot was ‘significant.’
‘Turning their backs on the mayor was an excellent example of how the hundreds of police officers felt waiting outside the hospital,’ Catanzara said, adding that officers no longer support Lightfoot’s leadership.
‘They have had enough and are no longer going to remain silent anymore,’ said the union boss.
The shooting of the officers occurred on another violent summer weekend in the nation’s third largest city, with at least 64 people shot, 10 fatally, by Sunday afternoon.
Chicago police work the scene where two police officers where shot during a traffic stop in the 6300 block of South Bell in the West Englewood neighborhood on Saturday
Officers had stopped a vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9pm Saturday on Chicago’s South Side, when a male passenger opened fire
The last Chicago officer shot to death in the line of duty was 28-year-old Samuel Jimenez, who was killed after responding to a shooting at a hospital on November 19, 2018.
Two officers, Conrad Gary and Eduardo Marmolejo, died when they were struck by a train while pursuing a suspect on December 17, 2018. The department also considers the COVID-19 deaths of four officers last year line-of-duty deaths.
The last female officer shot to death in the line of duty was Irma Ruiz, who was shot inside an elementary school in 1988.