Chicago Officer Is Cleared in Fatal Shooting of 15-Year-Old in Back of the Head

On a November afternoon in 2012, a Chicago police officer opened fire on a teenager, 15-year-old Dakota Bright, fatally striking him in the back of the head.

On Thursday, an independent civilian body decided that the officer, Brandon R. Ternand, 34, would be allowed to remain on the force.

In a 5-3 vote, that body, the Police Board of the City of Chicago, cleared Ternand of charges that he had used unnecessary force in the shooting death of Dakota. In its 21-page decision, the board said that it had found “credible and persuasive” the testimony of Ternand that he had feared for his life after the teenager turned around during a foot chase, looked at him and reached for his left side as if for a gun.

No gun was found on or near Dakota’s body, but the police said they had discovered a gun near an alley where the officers first saw the teenager.

Ternand, an 11-year veteran of the force who is white, “was objectively reasonably in fear for his life and that his use of deadly force was justified,” the board members who voted to clear him of the charges said.

But the three members of the board who dissented said they did so partly based on the autopsy report, which showed that Dakota, who was black, was hit in the “midline of the back of his head,” making it “more probable than not” that the teenager was turned away from the officer, the document said.

“With no countervailing evidence, the logical conclusion is the obvious one: If someone is shot in the back of the head, his head was facing away from the person who shot him,” the board’s dissenting members said.

Panzy Edwards, Dakota’s mother, said Friday that she had learned of the civilian board’s decision when contacted by local journalists. “It was wrong and unjustified,” she said of the decision. “Even with all the evidence, they still let that man go back to work, and they cleared him of any wrongdoing.”

Ternand did not respond to voicemail messages left Friday.

The board’s decision came a week after Jason Van Dyke, a white police officer, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, a case that had gripped Chicago for years. Dashboard-camera video from a police car gave a clear view of that shooting.

Ternand can return to active duty following the review board’s decision and receive back pay for the year that he has been suspended since the Independent Police Review Authority, a civilian watchdog body that has been renamed the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, found his shooting of Dakota “unprovoked” and “unwarranted.”

According to records reviewed by The Chicago Tribune, 23 complaints were lodged against Ternand from mid-December 2010 to mid-December 2014. That put him among the top 12 officers with the most complaints in the 12,000-strong police force over that period, the newspaper reported. Ternand was not disciplined for any of those allegations, which included claims of excessive force and illegal searches, according to The Tribune.

On Nov. 8, 2012, around 3:30 p.m., Ternand, a tactical officer who focused on gang-related activities and crime on the city’s South Side, and his partner responded to a call about a burglary at a building, according to the board’s decision. It was a false alarm, but the officers noticed a person, later identified as Dakota, enter an alley with “a gun in his hand,” the document said.

Ternand chased Dakota on foot, it said. According to his previous testimony quoted in the document, he commanded: “Police! Stop running — drop the gun!”

The officer testified that Dakota turned his head to the right and looked at him, then reached for his left side, the document said. The officer, believing “that Mr. Bright was still in possession of the gun,” shot him from about 50 feet away, “resulting in his death.”

After testimony from the officer, his wife, his partners and his commander, the majority of the board found Ternand’s testimony that he had believed he was going to be shot by Dakota credible. It also found his credibility bolstered by the facts that he had been a tactical officer for five years, that he “was a highly decorated officer, and that his reputation for honesty was established by his character witnesses.”

The majority of the board said it was undisputed that the officer had shot Dakota, and it was “also undisputed that this shooting was a terrible tragedy.” The document said Ternand “expressed sincere sympathy for the death of Mr. Bright,” but the board’s job was to decide whether the officer used excessive force.

The dissenting voters cited a number of reasons for why they found the officer was not justified in using deadly force and should be discharged from the force. Among the reasons, they said, was that a gun was not found on Dakota’s body and there was no evidence that the weapon later found at the scene belonged to him. Also, the “trajectory of the bullet” indicated that Dakota was “facing away from Officer Ternand when he was shot,” the document said.

“We do not believe that a reasonable officer, under the facts and circumstances presented in this case, would be in fear of his safety and life from a suspect who is running away from him at a distance of 50 feet,” it said.

Edwards said her son, who was a freshman at Paul Robeson High School, had been on his way to his grandmother’s house that day.

“The sad part is, he doesn’t have a voice,” she said. “He doesn’t get no justice, he doesn’t get to grow up and have a family and be anyone.”