(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

A proposal to pay $8.75 million to the family of a man shot and killed by a Chicago police officer after the man called 911 for help while being threatened by his wife, who had a knife, is set for a final vote by the Chicago City Council on Wednesday.

The City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously endorsed the measure Monday, sending it to the full Chicago City Council meeting set for Wednesday for a final vote.

If approved, the settlement would be the largest police misconduct settlement approved by the City Council in 2023, and the largest since May 2022, when the Chicago City Council agreed to pay $14.25 million to Daniel Taylor, who spent 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) said he was “deeply angry” about the incident that resulted in the death of 61-year-old Michael Craig on Oct. 4, 2021.

Michael Craig, 61, called 911 on the morning of Oct. 4, 2021, pleading for help and telling the dispatcher that his wife had a knife to his throat. That 911 call recorded Craig telling his 6-year-old son to go downstairs and open the door for the police, according to the lawsuit filed by Patrick Jenkins, another of Craig’s sons.

When Chicago Police Officer Alberto Covarrubias arrived to Craig’s home, Covarrubias was holding his Taser and his gun. As he entered, Covarrubias simultaneously fired his gun, striking Craig, as well as his Taser. Craig collapsed to the floor in the bathroom, according to the lawsuit.

Covarrubias then shot Craig a second time as he lay on the bathroom floor, according to the lawsuit.

In response to a question from LaSpata, Assistant Corporation Counsel Caroline Fronczak confirmed that Craig was on the floor when he was shot a second time.

“I’m going to let that sit in my head,” LaSpata said. 

Before deploying his weapon, Covarrubias “was told five times that the aggressor who possessed a deadly weapon was a woman,” including by the son of the victim, according to the lawsuit.

Although Craig had been fatally wounded, Covarrubias did not offer medical attention. Instead, Covarrubias asked Tiffany Willis, Craig’s wife, who was holding a knife when Covarrubias entered their home, if she was injured and checked her body for wounds, according to the lawsuit.

Willis was not injured and later pleaded guilty to stabbing Craig five times just as Covarrubias entered their home. She was sentenced to five years in prison. 

An autopsy determined Craig died from multiple gunshot wounds, Fronczak said.

A probe into the shooting by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability remains open, according to the website of the agency charged with investigating police misconduct.

“I’m trying to wrap my mind around this case,” said Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward).

In 2018, former Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson recommended Covarrubias be fired for threatening an officer while he was being detained after a drunken altercation with a woman and refused a direct order to take a breathalyzer test. That incident took place in 2016.

In August 2019, the Chicago Police Board found Covarrubias committed eight rule violations but declined to follow Johnson’s recommendation that he be terminated. Instead, Covarrubias was suspended until he could present evidence that he was fit for duty.

The police board unanimously reinstated Covarrubias as a police officer in November 2019 after he completed treatment for alcohol addiction, according to police board records.

Covarrubias remains a Chicago police officer, earning $101,412 annually, according to the city’s employee database.

In other action, the Finance Committee endorsed city lawyers’ recommendation to pay $515,000 to James Mundo, who worked in the labor relations division of the Chicago Fire Department. That settlement is also set for a final vote on Wednesday.

Mundo, a gay man, sued the city in 2020 alleging that fire officials sexually harassed him, and city officials failed to stop that illegal conduct after he complained.

In April 2021, an audit by then-Inspector General Joseph Ferguson found Chicago Fire Department rules designed to prevent discrimination and sexual harassment are “insufficient” and the department’s “culture and workplace environment may make some members vulnerable to discrimination and/or sexual harassment.”

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]