Video Shows Former Top Cop Eddie Johnson Asleep Behind The Wheel

CHICAGO — City officials on Monday released documents, an audio recording of a 911 call and body cam video related to the traffic stop that ultimately got former police Supt. Eddie Johnson fired.

Body cam video shows Johnson in the driver's seat of his police vehicle with his eyes closed on Oct. 17, 2019. A police officer shined a flashlight inside the vehicle, which was stopped at 34th Place and Aberdeen.

The body cam video shows that Johnson appeared to wake up when the officer knocked on the window.

"Sir? Sir? You Alright? You good?" the officer can be heard saying on the video. "Got your ID?"

About 45 seconds later, Johnson lifted an ID card up to the window. The officer asked Johnson, "You just sitting here or you wanna go home?"

Johnson said, "I'm good."

The officer replied: "You good? Alright, sir. Have a good night." The video shows the officer walking away from vehicle as Johnson drives off.

City officials also released audio of a 911 call from a man who reported someone asleep in an SUV that was running with the lights off. The caller said he drove past the vehicle twice while circling the block to find parking. He told dispatchers the car had been "sitting there at least 5 minutes."

Later that day, Johnson announced that he had ordered an internal investigation on himself related to the traffic stop. A former police spokesman told reporters officers checked on Johnson's well-being and didn't find any evidence of impairment. The spokesman also said Johnson, who had a kidney transplant in 2017, had recently visited a doctor regarding a change in medication.

Patch was first to report that sources said body cam video showed officers made "no investigation into whether Johnson was impaired, no attempt to assist him or even check to see if he was healthy enough to drive."

Johnson initially told Mayor Lori Lightfoot that he had dinner and a couple drinks with friends the night police found him asleep behind the wheel. In November, Johnson announced plans to retire at bizarre news conference where Lightfoot asked reporters not to question the top cop about the investigation into the traffic stop because his young son was present.

In December, Lightfoot abruptly fired Johnson saying the top cop intentionally misled the public and lied to her several times about the events that preceded police finding him asleep behind the wheel of his police vehicle.

"Johnson intentionally misled the public in a press conference he called, on Oct. 17, 2019. He was not caught off guard, and he had plenty of time to choose his words, and the choice he made was to communicate a narrative replete with false statements, all seemingly intended to hide the true nature of his conduct from the evening before," Lightfoot said on Dec. 3, 2019.

"Just like with the public, Eddie Johnson intentionally lied to me, several times, even when I challenged him about the narrative that he shared with me. He maintained that he was telling the truth. I now know definitively that he was not."

The night Johnson was found asleep behind the wheel, the then top cop was caught on video drinking and kissing a female police officer who was not his wife at a downtown bar.

City Inspector General Joe Ferguson's investigation into how the incident was handled have not been released publicly.