Age: 30
Date of Death: 5/3/2006

Killing by cop ruled justified
May 05, 2006|By From news services.

Police said Thursday that an officer was justified in fatally shooting a man Wednesday
night during a traffic stop on Chicago’s West Side.
The officer was being dragged by the man’s car when he fired, and he feared for his life,
said police spokeswoman Monique Bond.
Michael Dunbar, 30, was on parole for attacking an officer in a similar incident last year,
officials said Thursday. He was fatally shot by Ogden District police around 10:15 p.m.
Wednesday in the 3900 block of West Roosevelt Road, authorities said.
Two uniformed officers in a patrol car noticed a vehicle parked on the sidewalk and
walked up to the car, Bond said.
When the driver began backing up the car, the officers identified themselves and ordered
him to stop. Bond said the officer near the driver’s side then put his hand inside the
window. The officer’s arm became pinned after Dunbar rolled up the window and began
to drive forward.
As the officer was being dragged, he again yelled for the driver to stop, Bond said.
When Dunbar did not stop, the officer drew his weapon with his free hand and fired “a
couple of shots,” striking Dunbar at least once.
The car continued west for about a block before coming to a stop at Pulaski Road, Bond
said. She said a female passenger in Dunbar’s car was not harmed. She was interviewed
and released.
Initially, police said the officer had put his arm in the car to turn off the engine.
Bond said further interviews had clarified the scenario.
But Dunbar’s sister-in-law, Cansandra Wright, 31, disputed the police account. She said
Dunbar and his passenger had parked in a long curb cut on Roosevelt while they went
into a nearby convenience store.
As they came out of the store and got in the car, a marked police car pulled up behind
them with its lights and siren off. Two officers got out and approached Dunbar’s car
without identifying themselves, she said.
“He drives away, and they start shooting,” she said.
Wright, who said she was standing nearby, at Springfield Avenue and Roosevelt, when
the shooting occurred, said neither officer was dragged by the car or hurt as far as she
could tell.
Dunbar, of the 3300 block of West Lexington Street, was pronounced dead at 11:14 p.m.
Wednesday at Mt. Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s
office. The officer, a four-year veteran, was hospitalized with minor injuries, Bond said.
Monica Logan, 51, who lives near the shooting, said more trouble erupted as police
dispersed a crowd at Grenshaw Street and Pulaski Road.
Police chased a man into her home, she said, and began hitting him and another occupant.
They eventually subdued and carried away the man, but left her home in shambles, she
said.