Jennifer Keiper, WLS-AM 890 News
(CHICAGO) A Chicago police officer convicted of shooting at a car full of teenagers has been sentenced to five years in federal prison.
42-year-old Marco Proano was convicted of using excessive force in violation of the victims’ civil rights. He fired 16-shots at a stolen car, in December 2013, and told the judge that his actions were the reason “all those teenagers went home that night.”
Prosecutors asked for Proano to be sentenced to up to eight years in prison saying he could have killed six teenagers. Two were injured. “All that said, this was a case where a police officer knowingly, knowingly violated civil rights of the people who were in that car, on that day,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joel Levin.
Proano’s lawyer Daniel Herbert says the officer acted properly. “These are difficult times. We recognize the fact that police officers’ split-second actions are going to be judged by individuals that have the luxury to look at it through a different lens,” said Herbert.
Herbert argued that Proano shouldn’t be punished because of alleged systemic problems in the police department and that he was a victim of a backlash against police since the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
