Two brothers have been charged in the weekend shooting that left a 29-year old Chicago Police Officer dead over the weekend, the Chicago Police Department announced on Monday.
Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first degree murder in Saturday night’s murder of Officer Ella French. His brother Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice.
The two brothers and a third woman were stopped by French and her partner around 9 p.m. Saturday night when gunfire erupted from the vehicle, police said. Officers returned gunfire at the vehicle, injuring one of its occupants.
The exact reason for the traffic stop has not yet been made clear.
“This is the first step towards justice as we work to honor our fallen officer and her partner,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a press conference on Monday evening.
French’s partner was taken to the hospital with serious gunshot wounds but is “improving incrementally,” Brown said.
The young woman in the car with the brothers has not been charged, due to lack of evidence, he said.
The gun used “was the product of a straw purchase,” Brown said, and was illegally purchased through an Indiana man, Jamel Danzy, 29, who purchased the gun legally in Hammond, Indiana and knowingly provided it to another individual in Chicago who was not permitted to own firearms, Brown said.
Danzy was charged by federal authorities on Monday.
Brown said that traffic stops like Saturday’s are beneficial for officers in keeping guns off the streets. In this year alone, he said, 7,536 guns have been recovered by CPD, a 23 percent increase from the same time period last year.
“But for the brave conduct of our police officers trying to protect the people of Chicago and recovering an illegally possessed gun, what ended up being an illegally bought gun, but for these types of traffic stops our cities wouldn’t be safe.
“Criminals with illegal guns are driving [up] crime here and everywhere in this country. And officers put themselves in harm’s way stopping suspects like this so that we can all sleep safely in our homes at night.”
French is the first Chicago police officer killed since Lightfoot became mayor of the city in 2019, but the city’s cops have faced a surge of gunfire in the past two years.
In total 11 people were killed and 73 were shot across the city over the weekend, Chicago polce said.