On Feb. 7, 2015, Antwon D. Golatte was stopped on the South Side by Chicago police for an alleged traffic violation. Three other police officers – Jaime Gaeta, Harry Matheos and Matt Dercola – soon arrived on the scene, court records show.
Golatte, a Black man, says he called 911 as soon as he saw them, because he recognized the three as the officers who stopped him two days earlier. In that stop, the officers dumped his pizza on the ground and made him stand barefoot in the snow while they searched his car.
Unhappy with Golatte’s call, the officers began swearing and pointing their guns at him, according to the complaint filed Friday in Chicago federal court.
“Plaintiff lowered his driver’s side window in an attempt to communicate with defendant officers, to no avail,” the complaint states. “Defendant Gaeta then stood on the running board [of] plaintiff’s car, grabbed the inside of plaintiff’s driver side window, pulled, and shattered the glass.”
The officers then opened fire, shooting him five times and barely missing his vital organs, according to the lawsuit. Golatte says he still has bullet shards in his body that doctors were unable to remove.
Golatte was charged with aggravated assault on the four police officers with a motor vehicle, charges he claims were trumped up to justify the shooting.
Three days after the shooting, the Chicago Police Department updated its policy on use of deadly force, prohibiting officers from shooting at moving vehicles if no other weapons were being used against them.
Golatte was acquitted of the accused crimes at trial. The Independent Police Review Authority also found in July that the officers used deadly force without justification.