Dante Servin, the Chicago police officer found innocent of manslaughter charges in the death of 22-year-old Rekia Boyd earlier this year, should be fired from his job. So says his boss, Police Chief Garry McCarthy. In a statement released on Monday, McCarthy says “after considerable deliberation” he came to the conclusion that Servin “showed incredibly poor judgement” in attempting to de-escalate a dispute.
The Independent Police Review Authority, the civilian agency that investigates officer involved shootings, recommended that Servin be fired back in September. McCarthy is scheduled to formally request that the Chicago Police Board terminate Servin on Wednesday.
In March of 2012 Boyd and several others were in a west side park near an alley. Servin, who had argued with the group about making noise, says a man took something from his waistband and pointed it at Servin and ran toward his direction. Servin fired five shots toward the crowd from inside his car, over his shoulder. The man Servin alleges ran toward him, Antonio Cross, was in possession of a cellphone, not a weapon. Cross suffered wounds to the back of his hand, while Boyd was shot in the back of the head.
Servin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a weapon and reckless conduct. He opted for a bench trial where Judge Dennis Porter acquitted him of all charges in April 2015. Porter ruled that Servin should have been charged with murder since, under Illinois law, anyone who points a gun—let alone fires it—at someone is guilty of an intentional act, not a reckless one. Thus, since Servin was not charged with murder, Porter allowed him to walk free.