Trial opens for Chicago police officer in fatal shooting

Chicago police Detective Dante Servin listens during his manslaughter trial in Chicago, April 9, 2015. REUTERS/John J. Kim/Pool

By Tracy Rucinski CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chicago police officer charged with involuntary manslaughter went on trial on Thursday in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old black woman that became part of the national debate over police use of deadly force, especially against young black people. Dante Servin, who is Hispanic, shot and killed Rekia Boyd while off duty near his home in March 2012. He is the first Chicago police officer in more than 15 years to be charged in a fatal shooting. Servin has chosen to allow Cook County Judge Dennis Porter, rather than a jury, decide his guilt or innocence. "She didn't see it coming. She didn't stand a chance," Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Ramon Moore told Porter in an opening statement at the outset of the trial. Jennifer Blagg, one of Servin's attorneys, told Porter one of the men with Boyd the night of the shooting had reached into his waistband, extended his arm and charged toward Servin. "Mr. Servin wasn't looking for trouble, he was trying to stop trouble from happening," Blagg said. Servin called 911 to report a loud party in a park near his home and after midnight left his home to get food, armed with an unregistered semiautomatic handgun, the indictment said. He got into an argument with a group of young people in an alley and shot at them from his car, wounding Boyd, who died the next day, according to prosecutors. Ikca Beamon wiped tears from her eyes as she testified on Thursday to hearing shots and finding her friend on the ground. "She was just lying there, breathing real heavy, with a hole in her head the size of a quarter," Beamon said. Servin faces up to five years in prison if convicted. The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday. "I just want justice for Rekia. I want this man to serve time in prison," Angela Rosita Helton, Boyd's mother, told reporters after the trial recessed for the day. The last Chicago police officer convicted in a killing, Gregory Becker in 1997, shot a homeless man while off duty and served nearly four years in prison. Boyd's name has been one of many called out at protests around the country since an on-duty white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager during a confrontation in Ferguson, Missouri, in August, sparking a national debate about policing. The shooting was ruled justified. (Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech)