CHICAGO — The Civilian Workplace of Police Accountability (COPA) launched movies and different supplies associated to an off-duty Chicago police officer’s firing at a murderous man in Portage Park in November.
At about 2:23 p.m. on November 19, officer Chris Matias was strolling within the 5800 block of West Leland when he witnessed Constantin Beldie, 57, attacking and fatally stabbing Beldie’s estranged spouse, 54-year-old Lacramioara “Mirela” Beldie, in line with a CPD assertion and public data.
Matias approached Beldie and fired his weapon, placing Beldie, who fled the scene, COPA stated in a press launch immediately. Video exhibits Matias pursuing Beldie, who climbs right into a minivan. He drove away and was later discovered useless contained in the car a brief distance away. Matias was additionally injured. CPD stated he had been shot, however COPA on Thursday solely stated he “sustained an damage.”
The Prepare dinner County Medical Examiner’s Workplace decided that Beldie killed himself by inhaling his car exhaust within the 5700 block of West Giddings.
COPA launched six movies of the incident. The next clip is a compilation of two of these movies that present Matias firing at Beldie and confronting him as he tries to flee.
You possibly can assessment the complete movies and the opposite supplies launched by COPA right here.
Courtroom data present prosecutors requested a decide to maintain Beldie in custody a couple of month earlier than he killed his spouse after they charged him with kidnapping and aggravated home battery by strangulation for allegedly assaulting her in October. However the decide overseeing the case, Thomas Nowinski, rejected their detention request.
As a substitute, Nowinski launched Beldie on a GPS tracker and advised him to avoid his spouse and sure areas, data present. His spouse obtained an emergency order of safety in opposition to her husband the identical day.
In response to the October allegations, Beldie grabbed Mirela whereas she was strolling and tried to knock her out. In numerous courtroom filings, Mirela detailed a collection of violent allegations involving her husband, together with a number of threats that he would kill her.
A couple of week after the homicide, Prepare dinner County Chief Decide Timothy Evans introduced that Nowinski was now not dealing with “home violence or orders of safety” in mild of “nameless threats” Nowinski had obtained since his ruling within the Beldie case made headlines.
Days earlier than Evans introduced the adjustments to Nowinski’s duties, CWBChicago reported that Nowinski rejected detention requests 60% of the time between mid-October and mid-November.
We discovered 85 instances throughout that interval when prosecutors requested Nowinski to maintain a defendant jailed. He authorised simply 34 of these petitions, or 40%. By comparability, a roster of judges who dealt with related home instances throughout weekend courtroom classes granted petitions 57% of the time throughout the identical interval.
Within the month after Nowinski’s reassignment, judges who started dealing with his former duties granted 56% of all detention requests, CWBChicago reported. That’s a lot greater than Nowinski’s 40% and almost equivalent to the 57% granted by weekend judges in our earlier evaluation.
Three of the 4 judges granted greater than 60% of detention petitions introduced to them: Torrie Corbin, Sabra Ebersole, and Elizabeth Ryan. Decide Michael Hogan, who dealt with 43 of the 87 instances, granted simply 51%.
