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Ex-Chicago cop gets 40 years for shooting four officers
By Lauren FitzPatrick Sun-Times Media April 6, 2012 7:48AM
A Cook County judge on Thursday sentenced a former Chicago police officer to 40 years in prison for wounding four Chicago cops during a February 2005 shootout in which the gunman was shot 28 times.
Howard Morgan, 61, was convicted in a retrial in January of four counts of attempted murder. In his first trial in 2007, a jury deadlocked on the attempted murder charges and acquitted him of aggravated battery and discharging his weapon.
Thursday’s hearing was held in a courtroom crowded with police officers, Occupy Chicago protesters and bow-tied members of the Nation of Islam — reflecting the racially charged incident involving a black railroad police officer and four white officers.
During a routine stop at 19th Street and Lawndale Avenue, Morgan became uncooperative while officers tried to handcuff him, grabbed an unregistered handgun and opened fire, unloading 17 rounds at police, prosecutors said. Officers returned fire, hitting him 28 times. Three of the four responding officers were shot, though none had life-threatening wounds, according to prosecutors.
At the time of the shooting, Morgan was employed as a patrolman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, a job he took after 8½ years with Chicago police, his attorney, Randolph N. Stone, said. Stone told Circuit Court Judge Clayton Crane that Morgan has no other criminal history.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Groth called Morgan a “sociopath” for trying to kill four uniformed police officers.
“Society needs to be protected from him,” he said.
Officer Eric White, who was shot in a leg, told the judge that he drove his wounded partner, Nicholas Olsen, to the hospital after the shootings.
“By the grace of God, all of us, including Howard Morgan, survived that morning,” White read from a statement. “The bullet fragment in my leg doesn’t really bother me. The one I heard and felt whiz past my left ear gives me nightmares, and watching as he shot (Officer) John Wrigley in the chest will torment me forever.”
Wrigley,who said he survived that shot thanks to a bulletproof vest, told Morgan that he had shown “no remorse or accountability in regards to your actions and choices that night. In fact, you have done the opposite. You attempted to hide behind the racial fears of our community.”
Morgan made no apology and no plea for mercy to the judge. He spoke of his 21 years of work in law enforcement and insisted he was attacked.
“God bless my wife and family, and it’s all in God’s hands and I have nothing else to say, thank you,” he told Crane.
The judge did not believe Morgan’s account, telling him “I have no idea what possessed your actions that night.”
By Lauren FitzPatrick Sun-Times Media April 6, 2012 7:48AM
A Cook County judge on Thursday sentenced a former Chicago police officer to 40 years in prison for wounding four Chicago cops during a February 2005 shootout in which the gunman was shot 28 times.
Howard Morgan, 61, was convicted in a retrial in January of four counts of attempted murder. In his first trial in 2007, a jury deadlocked on the attempted murder charges and acquitted him of aggravated battery and discharging his weapon.
Thursday’s hearing was held in a courtroom crowded with police officers, Occupy Chicago protesters and bow-tied members of the Nation of Islam — reflecting the racially charged incident involving a black railroad police officer and four white officers.
During a routine stop at 19th Street and Lawndale Avenue, Morgan became uncooperative while officers tried to handcuff him, grabbed an unregistered handgun and opened fire, unloading 17 rounds at police, prosecutors said. Officers returned fire, hitting him 28 times. Three of the four responding officers were shot, though none had life-threatening wounds, according to prosecutors.
At the time of the shooting, Morgan was employed as a patrolman for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, a job he took after 8½ years with Chicago police, his attorney, Randolph N. Stone, said. Stone told Circuit Court Judge Clayton Crane that Morgan has no other criminal history.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Groth called Morgan a “sociopath” for trying to kill four uniformed police officers.
“Society needs to be protected from him,” he said.
Officer Eric White, who was shot in a leg, told the judge that he drove his wounded partner, Nicholas Olsen, to the hospital after the shootings.
“By the grace of God, all of us, including Howard Morgan, survived that morning,” White read from a statement. “The bullet fragment in my leg doesn’t really bother me. The one I heard and felt whiz past my left ear gives me nightmares, and watching as he shot (Officer) John Wrigley in the chest will torment me forever.”
Wrigley,who said he survived that shot thanks to a bulletproof vest, told Morgan that he had shown “no remorse or accountability in regards to your actions and choices that night. In fact, you have done the opposite. You attempted to hide behind the racial fears of our community.”
Morgan made no apology and no plea for mercy to the judge. He spoke of his 21 years of work in law enforcement and insisted he was attacked.
“God bless my wife and family, and it’s all in God’s hands and I have nothing else to say, thank you,” he told Crane.
The judge did not believe Morgan’s account, telling him “I have no idea what possessed your actions that night.”
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
Howard Morgan was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison.
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