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Chicago Tribune
21-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Jury deliberating in trial of man accused of killing Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso
With few details of the fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso in dispute, attorneys on both sides of the case sought to probe into the mind of his accused killer during their closing arguments in the case Monday. Steven Montano, 21, is charged with murder in the 32-year-old officer's death, but in a win for the defense, Cook County Judge John Lyke Jr. found that the jury could have the option of rendering the less serious verdict of second-degree murder, over the objection of the prosecution. Lyke said the law leaves the decision up to the jury as to whether they find Montano's testimony credible in support of a lesser offense. The panel began deliberating in the case just after 3 p.m. With the ruling on a lesser included offense, the closing arguments became centered on a 'battle … between first degree murder and second degree murder,' prosecutors said, while both sides made arguments to the jury about Montano's state of mind when he shot Vásquez Lasso. On one side, prosecutors said Montano fired shots at Vásquez Lasso to avoid an arrest. On the other side, his public defenders said he shot the officer in a moment of stress and panic when he saw a gun, not realizing Vásquez Lasso was a police officer. 'Second degree is the … last lifeboat on the Titanic,' said Assistant State's Attorney Kevin Nolan. '(Montano) is trying to jam the square peg of second degree murder into the round hole of these facts.' But Assistant Public Defender Brett Balmer described Montano as an 18-year-old who was in a controlling and dysfunctional relationship with a 37-year-old woman who lied when she called 911 that day, bringing officers to the scene. She said he grew up in the Little Village neighborhood in an environment where he had multiple negative encounters with police officers. 'We know what happened. We unfortunately saw it happen,' Balmer said. 'The question for you is … why did this happen.' The attorneys closed their case after jurors for a week heard from more than a dozen witnesses and viewed body camera footage of the shooting that killed Vásquez Lasso on March 1, 2023. Family members, police officers and prosecutors, including State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke, packed the courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling came to court prior to the proceedings. Prosecutors said Montano shot and killed the officer in the 5200 block of South Spaulding Avenue after he responded to a 911 call phoned in by Montano's girlfriend. Vásquez Lasso and his colleagues responded to the area after the girlfriend reported that Montano threatened to get his gun during an argument, according to prosecutors. Officers chased Montano after they saw him leave the residence through a window. During a final confrontation near Sawyer Elementary School, prosecutors said, Montano fatally shot Vásquez Lasso, who also fired at Montano and injured him. On Friday, Montano took the stand in his own defense and told the jury he fired at Vásquez Lasso in self defense. After the first two officers who pursued him dropped off, Montano said, he did not know who was chasing him, and only saw a gun pointed at him. 'I was terrified,' Montano said. 'I was in fear of my life.' But during closing arguments, prosecutors laid out on a table all of the gear and clothing Vásquez Lasso wore that day, including his vest that said 'Police,' his duty belt and handcuffs. 'This is what Andres Vásquez Lasso was wearing,' Assistant State's Attorney Sara Grgurovic said. 'It's hard to miss.' But, Grgurovic told jurors, even if they believe that Montano did not know Vásquez Lasso was a police officer, she said he was not justified in shooting at someone who had told him 'stop.' 'Its not reasonable,' she said. 'You don't get to shoot someone for any of that.' Balmer, though, said that Montano initially lost the first two officers who pursued him and did not know Vásquez Lasso was chasing him. 'Steven was terrified, panicked, an 18-year-old kid who was running for his life,' she said. 'He did something unimaginable, something that shouldn't have happened.' Earlier in the week, emotional police officers took the stand and described rushing Vásquez Lasso to the hospital in a squad car. 'Officer down!' a officer yelled, according to footage viewed by the jury. 'Officer down!' After the shooting, Montano pleaded to the responding officers, according to footage: 'Kill me. Kill me.' Instead, though, Vásquez Lasso's partner that day, Officer Miguel Enciso, used his Taser to subdue Montano. Montano asked why Enciso didn't kill him, the officer testified. Enciso testified that he ordered Montano to 'shut the f––– up.' Montano responded, according to Enciso: 'You shut the f––– up b––––. That's why I killed your b–––– a–– boy.'
Chicago Tribune
14-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Alleged killer of CPD Officer Andres Vásquez Lasso set for trial
As a domestic confrontation spilled out onto a Southwest Side sidewalk on March 1, 2023, emergency dispatchers did what they do every day and assigned officers to hustle to the scene. Among those who responded was 32-year-old Chicago police Officer Andres Vásquez Lasso. But in a reminder of how dangerous domestic calls can be for officers, the situation escalated into more violence and Vásquez Lasso was shot and killed, prosecutors said, while children at a nearby playground took cover under a slide. More than two years later, the officer's accused killer is scheduled to stand trial, with jury selection set to begin Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Barring any last-minute delays, Steven Montano, 21, will face a jury on charges of murder and other felonies in the attack in the 5200 block of South Spaulding Avenue. The case goes to trial as the Chicago Police Department is still mourning and grappling with the fatal shooting of Officer Krystal Rivera by a fellow police officer on June 5, the first CPD officer to die of friendly fire in nearly 40 years. The case is also the first involving a slain officer to go to a jury since one of Officer Ella French's killers was convicted at trial last year. Vásquez Lasso was remembered by friends and family at his funeral as a loyal friend and confidant. He immigrated to the United States from Colombia when he was 18 years old and later enrolled in college and joined the Chicago Police Department. '(He) gave up his life serving what he loved most: the police,' the Rev. Andrés Beltrán, a family friend, said in Spanish during the homily at his funeral. 'And he leaves us, and we say goodbye to him, not only as a Colombian but as a friend, as a colleague, as a family man.' During his final act as a police officer, prosecutors said, Vásquez Lasso backed up his fellow officers in aiding Montano's 37-year-old girlfriend who left the residence through a side door and called 911 after Montano, during an argument, said he would get his gun. Montano also grabbed her phone and tried to stop her from calling for help, prosecutors alleged during a 2023 hearing. When officers arrived, they saw Montano jump out of a window and run away with what appeared to be a gun, prosecutors said. As Montano ran past Sawyer Elementary School, according to prosecutors, he was spotted and pursued by Vásquez Lasso. Montano turned toward the officer, prosecutors said, and both fired weapons. Vásquez Lasso hit Montano in the mouth area, and Montano shot the officer in the head, arm and leg as children and others in a nearby playground took cover. The shooting was captured on Vásquez Lasso's body camera, prosecutors have said. That means jurors will likely repeatedly see the shooting occur, which has become a hallmark of trials involving police shootings. CPD began testing body-worn cameras for patrol officers in 2015 and later expanded their use as part of broad reform efforts spurred by the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by CPD Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014. By the end of 2017, body cameras — a tool for both accountability and investigation — were in use for all Chicago Police Department patrol officers, which allows jurors and courtroom observers to watch, to some extent, a police shooting unfold. The SAFE-T Act further broadened body-camera use across Illinois, requiring that all police officers in the state be outfitted with cameras by 2025. Vásquez Lasso was one of two police officers shot to death in 2023 in attacks considered to be on-duty. About two months after he was killed, Chicago police Officer Aréanah Preston was slain as she returned to her Avalon Park home from a late-night shift. In a twist of fate, one of Vásquez Lasso's friends, Officer Luis Huesca, was shot and killed about a year later while heading home from his shift early in the morning. In a remembrance video for his friend, Huesca praised Vásquez Lasso — before he himself was killed — as 'one of those guys that actually deserved this star.'
