Chicago Police Officer Charles Harris II will not be fired for shooting five times into a moving car in Englewood in 2020, wounding two men inside, according to records detailing years of dispute between the city's police oversight agency and department leadership. Instead, Harris faces a 29-day suspension tied to body-camera and notification violations, while the more serious excessive-force allegation was dropped after officials determined Illinois' statute of limitations had run out.
The shooting happened on June 12, 2020, near 71st and Halsted streets in Englewood, after an officer reported that a Chevrolet Malibu had been stolen, according to records reviewed by WTTW News. The driver of the Malibu struck Officer Eddie Haynie, dragged him, and then threw him from the vehicle, according to a report from former Superintendent Larry Snelling, which stated that only four seconds elapsed during that sequence. Harris then fired five shots at the car, wounding both men inside — one suffered a gunshot wound to his left forearm, and the other was shot in his left calf.
Two Very Different Verdicts on the Same Four Seconds
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended that Harris be fired, concluding his decision to fire at the car was not reasonable and finding that Officer Haynie was no longer in the vehicle's path when Harris fired his first shot. COPA's investigation also found that the gunfire could have endangered officers or bystanders through ricochets and broken glass, and that it could have placed Haynie in even greater danger. A witness told investigators that Harris fired at the car after it had already passed him.
Snelling reached the opposite conclusion. His report found that Harris's decision to fire five shots into the moving car was objectively reasonable and that there had been no time for de-escalation, ultimately determining that Harris used deadly force as a last resort and that it complied with department policy. Snelling rejected COPA's recommendation to fire Harris, instead recommending a 30-day suspension — a penalty he could impose directly under Section 2-84-030 of the Municipal Code of Chicago, which allows superintendents to suspend officers for up to 30 days without a full Police Board trial.
A Policy Built to Stop Exactly This Kind of Shooting
CPD's General Order G03-02-03 prohibits officers from firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against them, unless deadly force is a necessary last resort to prevent death or great bodily harm, according to the Invisible Institute. The rule also requires officers to avoid placing themselves in the vehicle's path in the first place. CPD tightened that policy in October 2017 following recommendations from the Police Executive Research Forum, and it was later codified in Paragraph 187 of Chicago's 2019 federal consent decree, according to The Chicago Reporter. Just this month, the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the Police Board's decision to discharge two other CPD officers for a 2016 moving-vehicle shooting, rejecting a similar protection-of-life defense in Coughlin v. Johnson.
COPA finished its investigation into Harris on January 23, 2024, four years after the shooting — a delay explained by a provision in the Fraternal Order of Police contract, approved by the City Council in December 2023, that forced the agency to close all investigations pending more than 18 months within 45 days. That deadline triggered a wave of firing recommendations, including 28 officers pushed through in early 2024. The rushed timeline set off visible friction between Snelling and then-COPA Chief Andrea Kersten; Snelling publicly criticized Kersten at a Police Board meeting the following month.
The Statute of Limitations That Changed Everything
When COPA and the superintendent disagree on discipline, Section 2-78-130 of the Municipal Code sends the case to a single, randomly selected member of the nine-member Chicago Police Board to decide whether the superintendent met his burden of overcoming COPA's recommendation. Board member Lakenya White initially upheld Kersten's recommendation to fire Harris. But the case was later reassigned to board member Arlette Porter, who in February asked CPD brass and COPA officials to analyze whether Illinois' five-year statute of limitations barred the city from disciplining Harris for excessive force at all, given that the shooting was nearly six years old by the time of the final review.
That request led COPA to drop its appeal of Snelling's objection to firing Harris, leaving only the lesser violations on the table. COPA's remaining findings centered on CPD Special Order S03-14, which requires officers to activate body-worn cameras before initiating law enforcement action; Harris failed to activate his camera, as did other officers who responded before Harris opened fire, according to the probe. Harris also failed to notify supervisors that he had fired his weapon, and he told the passenger he shot that he'd done so because the passenger's companion had run over his detective.
Where Things Stand Now
Harris, who earns more than $111,200 annually, has been stripped of his badge and assigned to administrative duties while the 29-day suspension proceeds. Both men he shot were convicted of charges stemming from the encounter and did not sue the city; police recovered a gun and illegal drugs in the car, and the Malibu ultimately crashed into a fence after the driver fled on foot along with the second man. Harris later apprehended one of the fleeing men, while Haynie — who was treated for an injured ankle, a swollen elbow and a scarred knee after being dragged by the car — apprehended the other.
Snelling, who spent more than 30 years with the department, retired in July, leaving former First Deputy Fred Waller as interim superintendent just weeks before these records became public. It is not the first time Snelling overrode a COPA firing recommendation in favor of a shorter suspension; Hoodline reported a similar case involving a botched raid earlier this month in which the officer not only kept his job but was promoted. Single-member Police Board reviews have historically cut the other way, too — in 2020, board members rejected former Superintendent David Brown's more lenient discipline proposals in favor of COPA's termination recommendations, according to Police1, underscoring how much these outcomes can hinge on which board member draws the case and when.
