When Chicago police officer Ella French was gunned down during a traffic stop in August of 2021, she was wearing a bodycam that showed the entire encounter. So was her injured partner, Carlos Yanez, Jr., and a third officer.
Those videos were played in open court Tuesday, one week before the trial of the alleged shooter, Emonte Morgan, is set to begin, to determine if a jury should ever see them.
“You will see a cold-blooded murder and attempted murder of two officers and it's irrefutable,” said John Catanzara, president of Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police. He sat with the families of the victims, who watched painful video along with Judge Ursula Walowski.
Morgan’s public defenders had sought to keep the jury from hearing the audio from three of the videos, including those from French’s and Yanez’s cameras. They claimed the audio, on which you can hear shots fired and the officers gasping for air, would be prejudicial to their client.
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Walowski disagreed saying, “I find this video of the actual event, which is extremely relevant.”
Catanzara said the video is very clear in showing there was no excessive force used by the officers during the August 2021 traffic stop that led to murder. Yanez can be heard explaining that there was an open bottle of alcohol visible in the back seat of the car and that was the reason everyone was being ordered out of the vehicle.
“Carlos was extremely polite,” Catanzara said. “It was as textbook a traffic stop as you can have. Up until the point that it wasn’t.”
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Morgan’s brother Eric took a plea deal and is currently serving a seven-year sentence for his role in the shootings.
French’s mother Elizabeth was in court Tuesday along with Officer Yanez.
“There is always going to be that survivor’s guilt of why me and not her and could I have done anything different to save Ella?” Cantanzara said.
Jury selection in Morgan’s murder trial is scheduled to start on Monday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California.
