No Criminal Charges For Cop Who Shot Teen During Shootout: Foxx

DES PLAINES, IL — A Des Plaines police officer who mistakenly shot a teenage musician will not face criminal charges, Cook County State's Attorney's office said in a memo.

Rylan Wilder, who was 15 at the time, was accidentally struck during a shootout with a suspected bank robber while working at a music school on the Northwest Side.

According to police, the suspect had just shot a police officer in the head and ran into UpBeat Music and Art, leading officers to chase him.

Video footage from the store showed Wilder was shot in the arm and stomach by Des Plaines police officer James Armstrong. Armstrong had his personal weapon, an AR-15, and eventually killed the suspected robber who was later identified as Christopher Willis.

Since being caught in the crossfire, Wilder has had 20 surgeries. Attorneys for the family told Patch he is still unable to play his instrument properly.

After a review, Kim Foxx told staff in a memo that the office decided not to criminally charge Armstrong due to his use of "justified force."

"Officer Armstrong acted reasonably when he fired his rifle at Willis," she wrote. According to Foxx, Willis had threatened the officer's life and escaped several crime scenes prior to the chase. There was also no evidence that Armstrong saw Wilder in the way before he shot, she said.

According to the memo, Wilder couldn't be seen in the body camera footage from the event.

"The angles in the videos support Officer Armstrong's statement that while he was focused to his right firing at Willis, he did not see [Wilder] to his left."

However, attorneys for the Wilders said the family has a civil suit pending against Armstrong and the Des Plaines police department.

"Officer Armstrong came into another jurisdiction with his own weapon, a weapon of war, an AR-15," Wilder's attorneys said in a statement. "His body camera was pointed downward, and was not working at the time of the shooting. The surveillance video inside UpBeat was pointed in the wrong direction. So the state's attorney can make any conclusions it wants, but we're entitled to pursue our case."

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Neither the state's attorney's office nor the state appellate prosecutor found criminal charges appropriate to charge Armstrong.

Des Plaines police Chief David Anderson said he supports the state's attorney's decision.

"Officer Armstrong acted heroically to stop an active shooter who had just committed multiple forcible felonies and shot a Chicago Police officer prior to entering the music school," Anderson said in a statement.