FBI launches investigation into another Chicago police shooting

The Chicago Police Department is again under fire after the FBI announced this week they are investigating the 2013 shooting death of an allegedly unarmed man.

The FBI has launched an investigation into a civil rights violations after two officers fatally shot Esau Castellanos, whose family opened a wrongful death lawsuit last year in federal court, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“The FBI will continue to collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough, and impartial manner,” an FBI spokesperson told Reuters.

Chicago police officers Shawn Lawryn and Juan Martinez said they trailed Castellanos’ speeding vehicle before it crashed and he began opening fire on the two patrolmen. The suit counters those claims, stating that Castellanos did not have a firearm when he died.

While an autopsy later showed Castellanos was intoxicated at nearly twice the legal limit, no gun was found in the vicinity of the vehicle, despite the officers contentions that he shot at them.

Combined, Lawryn and Martinez fired 19 rounds at Castellanos, striking him three times, the Tribune said.

While the FBI reportedly began its investigation more than two years ago, Interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante said he moved both officers to administrative duties on Friday, after recently learning about the federal probe.

In late December, a Chicago officer shot dead two unarmed residents, a a 19-year-old college student and a mother of five, as they authorities responded to a domestic incident inside their home.

The U.S. Department of Justice in December opened a federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department after a police video showed one officer fatally shooting an unarmed teenager Laquan McDonald last year, and a wave of complaints residents about excessive use of force and civil rights violations by officers in the department.