Accused Chicago cop-killer skirted jail days before deadly traffic stop
One of two brothers accused of killing a Chicago police officer was on the street despite being charged in a hit-and-run months earlier while on probation, according to a report.
Emonte Morgan, 21, who prosecutors say admitted fatally shooting Officer Ella French, 29, during a Saturday traffic stop, allegedly slammed into a man in a crosswalk on April 9 — while he was already on probation for a 2019 robbery, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Morgan could have been sent back to jail at a court hearing set for Tuesday over the incident — some three days after he and his brother, Eric Morgan, 22, allegedly killed French and critically injured her partner after their car was pulled over on the city’s South Side.
Prosecutors have said Morgan, who remains held without bond, admitted to opening fire on the two officers.
“It’s pretty incredible that they let him go,” a doctor at Northwestern Hospital who witnessed the hit-and-run and recognized Morgan’s face in press reports told the Sun-Times. “That might have been able to have been prevented it if he wasn’t let back out.”
The doctor, who identified herself only as Diane due to fears of retribution, said the man driving the van — later identified as Morgan — didn’t stop after hitting a man, who was hospitalized in serious but stable condition, according to the report.
“This guy is gonna kill someone,” Diane recalled thinking to herself. “I’ve never seen anyone drive so recklessly in my life.”
Morgan was charged with several misdemeanors in the hit-and-run before being released from custody the following day, the Sun-Times reported.
The doctor said she was stunned to later see Morgan as the suspected shooter in French’s slaying.
“I was in utter disbelief and felt sadness for her family,” Diane told the newspaper.
Chicago police declined to elaborate on why investigators didn’t ask prosecutors to seek felony charges in the hit-and-run. Department officials were also mum on whether they knew Morgan was then on probation, the newspaper reported.
“We do not have that information at this time,” a department spokesman said.
Diane, meanwhile, said the April crash impacted her personally because her mother had been involved in a hit-and-run in which no charges were filed.
“People who do things like this, injure people and just are able to drive away without thinking twice, what else are these people up to?” the doctor asked.
Meanwhile, Eric Morgan, 22, is facing charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice in Saturday’s deadly shooting of French.
Authorities say he ran off to ditch his brother’s gun. He also remains held without bond.
With Post wires
