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Jury Selection Opens in Trial of Man Accused of Killing Chicago Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso

Jurors will review graphic body-camera footage in the first slaying trial of a Chicago officer since the 2024 Ella French conviction

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Chicago police Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot present Milena Estepa de Vásquez with the Chicago flag from the coffin of her husband, slain Chicago police Officer Andrés Mauricio Vásquez Lasso, after his funeral Mass at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, March 9, 2023. Vásquez Lasso, 32, was shot and killed as he responded to reports of a man chasing a woman with a gun in Gage Park. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
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Overview

  • Jury selection began July 14 at the Leighton Criminal Court Building for Steven Montano, 21, who faces murder and related felony charges in Officer Lasso’s death.
  • Prosecutors will introduce Officer Lasso’s body-worn camera recording of the March 2023 shooting as central evidence.
  • Prosecutors allege Montano grabbed his girlfriend’s phone, fled a domestic dispute with a handgun and fired at Lasso when the officer pursued him.
  • Officer Lasso was shot in the head, arm and leg while backing up colleagues during a domestic-disturbance call on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
  • The case marks the first jury trial for a slain Chicago Police Department officer in over a year, following last year’s conviction in the Ella French case.