No word if the cops were in full battle rattle to arrest a 95 year old.
Via Chicago Tribune
An officer was charged this morning in the police killing of 95-year-old John Wrana, the World War II veteran who was fatally shot with beanbag rounds in his apartment at a south suburban senior facility last year.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office said patrolman Craig Taylor, 43, was charged with one count of reckless conduct, a Class 4 felony. Taylor has been with the Park Forest Police Department since January, 2004.
Taylor is expected to appear before a judge later today at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building. The case is being handled by the special prosecutions unit.
Wrana, who had served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in Burma during World War II, was just weeks shy of his 96th birthday when the confrontation occurred with police at the Victory Centre assisted-living center in July 2013.
The elderly man had refused medical treatment for a urinary tract infection, and reportedly became belligerent. Police who were called to the scene fired a Taser that failed to hit Wrana, and then shot him with bean-bag rounds fired from a shotgun. He died hours later of internal bleeding, authorities said.
Though Wrana was infirm and needed a walker or a cane to get around, police considered him armed and dangerous. They said he brandished a cane, a knife and a 2-foot-long metal shoehorn that some officers initially took for a machete.
Police responded with a Taser, a riot shield, a shotgun with beanbag rounds and one drawn handgun when they rushed him. An Illinois State Police inquiry of the case determined that Taylor fired the 12-gauge Mossberg police shotgun five times at Wrana.
Park Forest police used shotgun beanbag rounds from Combined Tactical Systems Inc. The rounds travel up to 190 mph, and manufacturer’s guidelines recommend that shooter be between 21 and 50 feet from the target. An independent pathologist who studied the original autopsy report said that it appeared Wrana had at least four impact wounds to his abdomen.
Despite Wrana being inside his living unit alone with his front door closed, prosecutors said, “the officers did not make any attempt to talk with Wrana and instead formulated a plan within a few minutes of their arrival to re-enter the apartment in force and secure Wrana with a ballistic shield, a Taser, a less-lethal shotgun, and a loaded-firearm.”