Chicago Transit Cop faces suspension in shooting 3 Black Men

Seventeen minutes late to his job patrolling the CTA's Red Line station at 95th Street, Officer Alvin Weems acted fast when he saw three men beating two others as he walked in to work. Weems -- wearing a tan stocking cap on his head and dark jacket over his uniform -- dropped his work bag, shouted he was a police officer and pulled his off-duty revolver out of his holster, police said. But Weems, police Supt. Philip Cline announced Friday, made a fatal mistake the morning of March 8, 2003. He kept a finger on the trigger of his gun, which accidentally discharged, killing 23-year-old Michael Pleasance, whose family is now suing the city. The series of events, captured in chilling detail on a CTA surveillance tape, happened in about a minute, Cline said. He plans to suspend Weems, 44, for 30 days without pay and force him to undergo use-of-force training when he comes back. "We instruct officers to keep their fingers off the trigger unless they plan to fire the weapon," Cline said. "This did not happen." Weems, an 18-year department veteran, can challenge the discipline, recommended by the department's Office of Professional Standards and formalized by Cline about a month ago. An investigation by the Cook County state's attorney's office confirmed the shooting did not merit criminal charges. Cline's news conference came hours after Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence ruled that the tape of the shooting can be made public.

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