Over the objection of Chicago’s top cop, a police officer now faces dismissal for fatally shooting a man who was holding a handgun after a foot pursuit in Garfield Park last year.
On April 15, 2023, Officer Fernando Ruiz fatally shot Reginald Clay Jr., 24, following a brief foot chase in the 3800 block of West Flournoy Street. Clay had ran from officers who approached him and a group of people around 10 a.m. that morning, according to statements released by the police department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Body-worn camera footage released by COPA shows Clay walking away as two officers pulled up. Clay flees through a gangway into a backyard and then into another gangway that was blocked off. Clay is seen turning toward the officers while gripping a gun in his right hand before he shifts the weapon to his left hand and apparently tries to put it down on a back porch. Ruiz opens fire as Clay appears to scream and grab his chest.
After completing its investigation in May, COPA recommended that Ruiz be dismissed from the department over the encounter. The agency alleged that the officer violated CPD’s foot pursuit policy, failed to notify the Office of Emergency Management and Communications of the pursuit per that policy, failed to activate his body camera in a timely manner and failed to use de-escalation techniques before using force.
But CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling disagreed with COPA’s recommendation that the officer be fired and proposed a two-day suspension instead. Snelling only agreed with COPA’s allegations that the officer did not activate his body camera in a timely manner and failed to notify OEMC.
Chicago Police Board President Kyle Cooper broke the gridlock on Thursday and sided with COPA. Ruiz’s fate will now be decided after either a hearing before the full police board or, if the officer chooses, public or private arbitration. That depends on an ongoing court battle over how the most serious police misconduct cases are handled.
Clay’s family, who sat in the audience wearing red shirts with Clay’s image and his nickname “Lil Red,” spoke during public comment and thanked Cooper for agreeing with COPA’s recommendation that Ruiz be fired. They also blasted Snelling for proposing a two-day suspension, accusing him of giving them “false hope” during their meetings with him.
“You all did the right thing today, man,” Clay’s father Reginald Clay Sr. said during the meeting.
A police report shows Clay was shot five times — once in his chest, sternum and armpit and twice in his arm. In May 2023, Clay’s friends and family joined activists outside Chicago Police Department headquarters to protest the shooting. They demanded the officer who fired the fatal shots be fired and arrested, saying that Clay was surrendering when he was killed.
According to Cooper’s written ruling, Ruiz stated in his reports that he stopped Clay for several reasons, including Clay’s presence in an area known for gang activity, his brief grab at his waistband and his attempt to walk away when approached by officers.
“However, based on controlling law, it was reasonable for COPA to conclude that none of these factors, individually or collectively, established reasonable suspicion of criminal activity that would justify stopping clay,” the ruling states.
CPD’s foot pursuit policy, which was implemented in 2022, notably bars officers from chasing a person simply for fleeing and advises them to reconsider pursuing someone who appears armed with a gun. The policy was spurred following the controversial fatal shootings of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 21-year-old Anthony Alvarez during foot pursuits.
The family filed a federal lawsuit days after the shooting, accusing a Chicago officer of using “unprovoked and unwarranted” force and violating the department’s foot-chase policy.
After the meeting, Clay Sr. said he felt “a little happy” after hearing the board side with COPA’s recommendation.
“The job’s not done yet though, we still have a long way to go but we’re headed down the right path,” he said, adding that they won’t get justice for his son until Ruiz is convicted of the shooting.
Tara Henderson, Clay’s mother, said Thursday’s ruling was just the beginning of their fight.
“Fernando Ruiz needs to pay for what he did to my son,” she said. “All because you chose to chase him when they told you not to. We wouldn’t be talking about any of this if you didn’t just listen. I feel like we are just getting started.”
Contributing: Tom Schuba