Moment off-duty female cop shoots robber dead after he tried to grab her gun

An off-duty female cop shot dead a man who tried to attack her and steal her gun seconds after she repeatedly warned him: ‘I’ll kill you.’

The incident occurred in Chicago on January 17. The woman in question is an officer with the city’s police force. The suspect, Leevon Smith, 39, was shot three times in the stomach. He succumbed to his injuries three days later. 

The officer originally tried to break up a fight involving Smith and three others outside of an apartment building on the city’s notoriously violent South Side. After the others left, video shows the officer and Smith talking for a few seconds. 

The moment the officer turns her back, Smith attempts to grab a gun. They struggle and wind up wrestling on the ground with her shoes coming off. Two shots can be heard at which point he can be heard saying: ‘You got me, you got me.’

As she screamed for neighbors to call 911, the officer shouts at Smith: ‘I told your dumb a**, I’d kill you.’ She then fires a third and final shot. 

The officer can be seen pointing her ‘off-duty’ gun at Leevon Smith

‘Damn, baby, I’m sorry. I don’t wanna die,’ Smith can be heard saying. 

‘You thought I was playing, I told you I’d shoot you,’ she replies. ‘I told your dumb a** I’d shoot you. You tried to steal my f*****g gun.’

‘Didn’t I just say I’d kill you? Didn’t I just to say I’d kill you?’ she adds. 

‘I told your dumba** I’d shoot you. You tried to steal my f***ing gun. I don’t give no f*** about him. He just tried to rob,’ she shouts for her neighbors to hear.  

Eventually, the officer called 911 herself telling the dispatcher: ‘Oh my God, he just tried to rob me. He just tried to steal me off-duty gun.”

In the call, she identifies herself as a cop and says that she had been trying to call her bosses but her calls were unanswered. 

The officer has been on the job since June 2022, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. 

Another officer arrives on the scene before an ambulance. That cop asks the shooter: ‘Where’d you hit him?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she answers. ‘F*** it. I can’t believe this happened to me,’ she also said. 

The officer, who has been on the job since June 2022, pictured with the suspect after breaking up the original fight

As the officer turns her back, Smith begins to attempt to grab her

The officer immediately reacts and begins fighting back against her attacker

Eventually, the officer is able to get the upper hand and gains control of her gun, shooting Smith at close range

After wounding Smith, the officer held him upright for a time

After Smith fell over, the officer stood over him, in the background you can see her croc shoe that came off in the struggle

The arrest report describes the lead-up to the shooting as a ‘verbal argument’ and accuses Smith of ‘attempting to disarm her.’ 

As a result of the shooting, the cop was put on administrative leave for 30 days. She was also treated for a laceration above her right eye. 

A tactical report on incident describes the officer as being placed in ‘imminent danger’ as Smith attempted to take her firearm.  She has not been charged wit ha crime.

On a 911 call about the original argument published by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, a voice can be heard saying: ‘Just give me my bag back, bro.’

A neighbor can be heard saying on a 911 call about the shooting: ‘There’s a lady outside with a gun and she shot somebody. … She’s going inside with the gun.’ 

‘The tussle that they had, almost had me in tears because she’s a tiny little person. I’m glad that she was able to keep herself together and do what she needed to do to come out alive,’ another neighbor who witnessed the shooting told Fox Chicago. 

The officer and the city are facing a $10 million lawsuit from Smith’s family alleging that his estate has been ‘diminished’ due to funeral costs.

His family also ‘suffered injuries as a result of his death, including, but not limited to, the loss of companionship and society, grief, sorrow and mental anguish,’ the suit says. 

The lawsuit accuses the cop of using ‘excessive and violent physical force’ and alleges that she should have ‘knew or should have known that such force was not necessary in light of the circumstances.’ 

Prior to his death, Smith was charged with aggravated battery and attempted robbery. He was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.