Tough Day at Court

Very tense and difficult testimony:

• After allegedly shooting a Chicago police officer to death on a Gage Park playground, Steven Montano begged for police to kill him too, the officer’s partner testified Wednesday.

  “He begins to walk toward me and says, ‘Kill me,’” Officer Miguel Enciso told jurors. “He begins to beg me to kill him.”

  The trial for Montano, the man accused of killing Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso, resumed Wednesday with a jury viewing body camera footage from the deceased officer’s partner.

  On the afternoon of March 1, 2023, Vasquez Lasso and his partner, Enciso, were responding to a domestic incident when they spotted a possible suspect running toward an elementary school.

  Vasquez Lasso jumped out of their squad car and ran after the man, Enciso testified Wednesday. Moments later, Enciso said he heard gunshots.

  When Encisco arrived at the playground, he saw Vasquez Lasso on the ground, bleeding from his head, and Montano seated about 15 feet away, with a gun nearby.

  Encisco was able to grab the gun and instructed Montano to stay on the ground, he said. But instead, Montano got up and began walking toward Enciso and Vasquez Lasso, Enciso testified.

  Montano continued ignoring commands, according to Enciso, so the officer holstered one weapon, pulled out a taser, and shocked the then-18-year-old, bringing him to the ground.

  “He told me to kill him, I told him to shut the f- - - up,” Encisco told jurors Wednesday.

  “He [Montano] said, ‘You shut the f- - - up b- - - -, that’s why I killed your b- - - - ass boy.”

  Vasquez Lasso’s mother stepped out of the courtroom as body camera footage of the encounter played.

The body camera footage and recorded conversation ought to be enough to secure a conviction alone.