The suspect in the killing of Officer Ella French on Saturday night was revealed this week to have been on probation following a robbery and had been charged earlier this year for his involvement in a serious hit-and-run.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Emonte Morgan was involved in a hit-and-run on April 9 of this year.
At the time, Morgan was on probation for a robbery in Old Town, and a petition had been filed to find him in violation but a hearing has yet to be held to resolve the issue. That could have sent Morgan to jail.
A hearing was supposed to be held this past Tuesday, three days after Morgan allegedly killed French.
At around 9:15pm on April 9, Morgan struck a man at a crosswalk, fleeing the scene only to be stopped after crashing into a parked nearly a mile and a half away.
According to a woman who chose to only be identified as her first name "Diane," she had been riding her bike through the area at the time of the incident when she saw the Dodge Caravan Morgan was driving swerving in and out of traffic on Wells Street.
"This guy is gonna kill someone," Diane told the Sun-Times she thought to herself. "I've never seen anyone drive so recklessly in my life."
Diane said moments later she heard a "terrible" sound and saw a man being thrown from the van's windshield and against a stop sign.
Diane, a physician, said she got off her bike and stayed with the man until paramedics and police responded.
"He was in bad shape, I mean that was just terrible head trauma," she said. "I was telling him not to move because if there was any kind of spinal cord damage, I didn't want him to make it worse."
According to a police report, the man was taken to Northwestern in serious but stable condition.
Morgan continued driving after the incident, crashing into a parked car on the 900 block of North Cambridge Avenue, where he attempted to run away on foot, but was stopped by a security guard.
After being taken into custody, Morgan told investigators that the crash had occurred because he was arguing with his brother over the phone and became distracted, the report states.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "He was charged with driving without a license, operating an uninsured vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident, according to police. The most serious charge was a misdemeanor, and Morgan was released from custody the next day on a personal recognizance bond."
"It's pretty incredible that they let him go," Diane said. "That might have been able to have been prevented if he wasn't let back out," she added, regarding the fatal shooting of Officer French.
"I was in utter disbelief and felt sadness for her family," Diane said.
Only misdemeanor charges and citations were filed in the hit-and-run case, with police not asking prosecutors to consider felony charges. The case was sent to Traffic Court, according to Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
According to the Sun-Times, "Court records show Morgan appeared for his first hearing on May 7. The case was continued to July 22, then continued again to Aug. 27."
At Morgan's first hearing, prosecutors would have had their first opportunity to review the charges, Simonton said. Prosecutors can seek to upgrade or add new charges after getting the case, and do so "on a case-by-case basis," Simonton said. "It all needs to be reviewed."
"It was unclear if authorities were aware of Morgan's probation at that initial hearing," said the Sun-Times.
A petition was filed by the Cook County Adult Probation Department in court on May 18, which said that Morgan had violated his robbery case probation with his new arrest connected to the hit-and-run.
While Morgan was still awaiting hearings, on August 7 at around 9pm, police say Morgan and his brother and one other woman were in a car that was stopped by French and two other officers for an expired plate.
Eric Morgan ran from the car, with Emonte Morgan struggling with officers.
During the struggle Emonte allegedly turned and shot both French and her partner that was assisting.
A third officer on the scene then shot Emonte, and he remains at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The original petition to find Morgan in violation of his probation has been superseded by one that cited the shooting of the officers.
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