The families of two teen boys shot, one fatally, by a Douglass Park lifeguard in June filed a lawsuit this week against the alleged gunman and the Chicago Park District, saying it should have known the former lifeguard was “unfit and a danger of harm to others.”
“We want answers, we want accountability and we want change so this never happens again,” attorney Jeff Neslund said at a Wednesday morning news conference at Park District headquarters in Brighton Park. He was surrounded by about a dozen of the boys’ friends and family members.
Charles Leto, a Park District lifeguard, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder following the June 26 shooting near the West Side pool. He pleaded not guilty and claimed to police that the shooting was in self-defense.
Prosecutors said Leto shot at the unarmed teenagers, killing 15-year-old Marjay Dotson with a gunshot wound to his back and seriously injuring 14-year-old Jeremy Herred, who is now quadriplegic. Witnesses said Leto took a gun out of his backpack and fired shots after the boys approached him in a group while he was fixing his bike.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, said the Park District shirked its “duty of care” in hiring Leto, who about four months before he was hired in June 2023 shot two dogs in Lakeview, killing one and sparking a response by a Chicago police SWAT team.
The Park District said in a statement that it will “review and respond to the case accordingly.” Leto’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit also pointed to the findings of an internal Park District review, which found that Leto had at least five altercations at two locations where patrons or staff raised concerns about his behavior. Those “red flags” meant Leto shouldn’t have been made “Lifeguard Captain” at Douglass Park, the lawsuit said.
Leto admitted his behavior was “inappropriate” after he screamed at a parent for unknowingly violating a pool rule in January at Gill Park, the review found. A few months later at Gill Park, he had a “tense exchange of words” with a head lifeguard over a towel, and a co-worker also accused him in a text chain of yelling at parents and co-workers about not being able to handle his emotions, the review found.
In May, after Leto was transferred to another Park District pool, a patron complained about Leto’s “unprofessional and aggressive behavior.” He reportedly banged on a bathroom door at Austin Town Hall Park, according to the review.
“There has to be a better discipline system for the Park District,” Neslund said. “(Leto) was moved around from pool to pool like a chess piece. If somebody complained about him, if a pool worker said he couldn’t manage his emotions, he yelled at people, he didn’t have what it took to be a lifeguard, they would just move him to another pool.”
Three weeks later, Dotson and Herred were at the Douglass Park swimming pool with friends when the shooting occurred, the lawsuit said. Around closing time, other teens took Leto’s bike to the other side of the pool’s entrance as a prank when he denied them entry. Leto never called police or Park District security, the suit said.
When Leto knelt by his bike he pulled a handgun out of his backpack, the lawsuit said. At that point, “everyone in the vicinity,” including Dotson and Herred, ran away. Leto fatally shot Dotson in the back and hit Herred in the neck. Both were “unarmed and never threatened” Leto, the suit said.
Neslund said Dotson was going to be a sophomore at UIC College Prep High School, and that he played football. He added that the teen’s dreams were “snuffed away because of a cowardly shot.”
Herred’s father, Jeremy Herred Sr., said Wednesday that his son has undergone multiple surgeries and had suffered permanent injuries, including a fracture in his vertebrae that has left him unable to use his legs and arms. Herred is a relative of Laquan McDonald, whose murder by then-Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014 helped expose foundational problems with policing in Chicago.
Herred Sr. said he has spent countless hours at the hospital watching over his son. He said his younger children are struggling to understand what happened to their brother.
“It’s not only my kid’s life that’s changed forever,” he said. “Our lives changed forever.”
Originally Published:
