A Chicago Park District lifeguard is facing murder and attempted murder charges after allegedly shooting two teens last Thursday night, killing one and critically injuring the other in Douglass Park.
According to ABC7 Chicago, surveillance footage shared with the station shows the teens walking near Charles Leto, who was sitting with his bike.
The video then shows Leto getting up and pointing a gun at one of the teens. Prosecutors say 15-year-old Marjay Dotson was killed, and 14-year-old Jeremy Herred remains hospitalized with serious injuries.
Leto, a Marine veteran and concealed carry license holder, is accused of purposely targeting the boys. His defense attorney claims he acted in self-defense after the teens threatened him and said they were going to steal his bike. Prosecutors counter that he violated Park District policy by bringing a firearm onto the grounds.
Further investigation by CBS News Chicago revealed that this is not Leto’s first shooting incident. In 2023, a neighbor reported that Leto shot her two dogs in Lakeview, killing one and severely injuring the other.
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Chicago
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Police detained a 55-year-old pool lifeguard or supervisor after he fatally shot a 15-year-old male and wounded a 14-year-old. The man claimed the teens attacked him while he was working on his bicycle, per a police report.
https://t.co/ybmmFjzaAn
The neighbor, Jackie Michaels, told CBS she saw Leto come out of his garage and shoot both animals. Her surviving dog, Skokie, has undergone multiple surgeries to reconstruct his paws and still struggles to walk.
“He pointed the gun right at me that day,” Michaels told CBS News Chicago. Leto was not charged in the dog shooting after claiming he felt threatened.
Months later, he was hired as a lifeguard by the Park District.
Michaels expressed outrage upon learning of the teen shooting.
“A crazy person – don’t you think there’s something wrong with somebody who keeps shooting people and dogs?” she told the station.
Due to the lack of charges in the 2023 incident, the shooting did not appear on Leto’s background check when he was employed by the city.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has not yet commented on the previous dog shooting case. Leto is currently being held without bond.
Do you believe this Chicago lifeguard’s shootings were justified acts of self-defense, or do they show a dangerous pattern of behavior?
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I think in this case he’s a “trigger happy” individual.
“Do you believe this Chicago lifeguard’s shootings were justified acts of self-defense, or do they show a dangerous pattern of behavior?“
I love GunsAmerica but I HATE this question. For an organization that screams for due process for 2nd amendment rights this is baiting people to try the man in with public opinion with little to no information. Report on it. It news. It’s firearm news. Stop propagating opinion trials.
Sounds like legit self defense, if you watch the video, you can see the kid approach him and go reaching in his waistband and bag… These aren’t kids in Chicago? They are criminals, and that’s what they do. Run around with guns in their fanny, packs walking up robbing people
I love all the armchair experts in the comments… not a single one of us was there and know exactly what happened to make him feel the need to shoot the two teens.
There’s also no details on the dog shooting. Were they loose and coming at him aggressively? If that is the case, I’d shoot them too. But again, none of us were there and none of us know the facts. The optics aren’t good though, and these days that seems to be the only thing that matters…
You admit that you don’t yet have the full story, and yet you are more than willing to throw a fellow Marine under the bus? It seems premature to suggest that he ‘slipped through the cracks.’ Wait until we have the full story, at trial, before calling him a “paranoid trigger happy fool.”
The guy shot two black kids in Chicago.
He is screwed whatever the outcome.
The Devil is in the details, as always… but you should always be at least a little skeptical of people with repeat incidents of discharging their firearms in “self defense”. Could lightning strike twice or even multiple times in the same spot?… absolutely, but not often. As a former Federal Game Warden with thousands of contacts with armed citizens… often adversarial contacts… I can say that I never even had to draw my service weapon on duty except for training purposes. Even if someone is legally justified in a certain action, that doesn’t mean it was the only, or best, choice.
This is a sad exemplar of where our culture is today.
On one hand, you have those who have no respect for anyone and feel entitled in their actions, to do whatever they want without regard to repercussions.
On the other hand, you have people who are sick and tired of being “poked”, and they are primed to react (or overreact).
We, in this viewing gallery, are left to try and determine who was more in the wrong.
In this case, it appears (from the limitations of this video) that Leto’s use of force was not comparable to the threat.
And the teen’s furtive, potentially aggressive, behavior (whether intentional, or not), could be viewed as potentially life threatening by Leto.
No one wins, it just becomes a matter of who loses more.
I don’t know what to think these kids are stupid crazy these days. Did they make a threat? And as far as the shot dogs go; lots of people are irresponsible with their belligerent or dangerous dogs.
There’s not even remotely enough information in the video to make a call on this one.
All comments are spot on. Nice to see objective comments
The teens approach together then separate, the first teen turns 90 degrees to brush past him and flank him and the second teen turns 90 degrees and moves quickly straight towards him with hand outstretched and indexed. It looks like a coordinated attack.
Should he shoot at them as they retreat (if they were not pointing weapons at him as they did so?) No.
After watching the video several times, I think Leto shot the wrong kid. It happened very quickly but two teens seemed to approach him – one wearing blue with hair braids and, another from the right, wearing a backpack. As LG stood up, the one with the backpack on (to the right of the screen) backed away and out of the video frame as Leto fired and hit a different kid. This looks really, really bad. I can see why Leto was prompted to pull his firearm – the kid in blue could have easily passed in front of Leto but instead, he walked around the back of Leto – out of his field of vision – although there were several feet of room on the opposite to walk. That was really strange to me, watching the video – not worth pulling a firearm over but certainly worth backing away from that rapidly growing crowd around him. Leto also should have issued commands, not immediately start firing at people. His backstop was terrible. It was a miracle that he did not hit the lady behind the teenager in blue. Regardless of what was said, the Law requires the bad guy to make his move first and it also requires defenders to use proportional force to the threat.
Yes I watched the video, it appears he shot the wrong kid. The kid near the the backpack carrier was just walking by.
I agree with the statement defenders using proportional force based on the threat as they perceive it. Not how we perceive it in this lobby. Leto’s perception of the threat will be tested thoroughly in court. As to, “the Law requires the bad guy to make his move first,” I could not disagree more. The use of force/level of force is based on the perceived threat by the person involved (there are other factors such as using deadly force by shooting a murder suspect in the back while running away if you believe he will murder again). But if you wait for the “bad guy” to make “his move first,” you will be dead. Action always beats reaction. Always! Can you shoot un unarmed person? Maybe? You will be judged by how you perceived the threat and the level of force you used to stop the level of threat you faced. In this case, none of us can put ourselves in Leto’s mind (not that I would want to be in there). Is the video disturbing? Yes, it is. He will be convicted by the press long before this goes to court after the family hires Ben Crump.
If I walked up and called you a dickhead would you feel “threatened“? This guy seems to have a loose trigger finger by what I’m seeing in the video. Those two kids weren’t close enough or in verbal contact long enough for me to feel threatened… But that’s me. Maybe they said something about this guy blocking the entire sidewalk to fix his bike… which in my opinion, is a dick move. Shooting the two dogs… We don’t have enough information to draw conclusion on that one but this guy seems like a bully with a gun.
depends on your attitude walking up. if you look menacing i will reach and see if you back off, if you have a gun and waving it around i will drop you. no offense to you just answering your question
Leto was not charged with shooting the dogs because the DA determined he was within his rights to protect himself, so why even bring it up. That has nothing to do with this event. The actress Angie Harmon got her panties all in a knot when an Instacart delivery driver shot and killed her dog after it attacked him making a delivery. Moral of that story is; control your animals.
Here’s another one; I was out walking in my neighborhood one morning and a neighbors’ Pitbull charged me at full speed hell bent on doing me harm. I only had seconds to react so drew a NAA .22 mag from my pocket I always carried during my walks for that very reason, cocked it, and was just about to squeeze the trigger when the dog suddenly slammed on brakes within inches of me planting a hollow point right between his eyes. I could have touched him. Did the dog sense my lack of fright and my willingness to end his charge at whatever cost? The homeowner realized it and came running out of his house cussing me for almost shooting his “harmless” Pitbull. I didn’t say a word, even after almost shitting my shorts, and continued my walk. I never saw that Pitbull out loose after that, even the next day. Love your pets? Great, take care of them.
As the old saying goes; “IT’S BETTER TO BE JUDGED BY TWELVE, THAN CARRIED BY SIX” …
From the video it appears to me one of these knuckleheads made physical contact with him, or got close enough he felt threatened, and he defended himself. He didn’t know if they were armed, could pull back, regroup, and open fire on him. You shoot until the perceived threat is no longer a threat. It appears to me that’s exactly what he did.
We don’t know what was said between them. Did they communicate a threat? Did he perceive a threat and feel he needed to protect himself? Looks to me like that’s what happened. ‘Little Johnny’ or a Pitbull, both can be equally dangerous. Lets let the ’12’ do their jobs …
You should not be allowed to own a firearm. You’re assessment of this situation is illogical and nonsensical.
Shouldn’t you be out burning a Tesla, or an American flag, or looting and pillaging a business? Or maybe your mom and dad let you stay up late tonight and play on the computer, since it’s a holiday?
Would have to see whole story for justification. On surface, this appears to be a very justifiable self defense case.
My bad, I just watched the video. After seeing that video, must provide better evidence explaining why this situation was “immediately threatening”. Video could be insufficient, good audio would assist in understanding any justification for shooting. Appears by video, LG had opportunity to flee without confrontation, and after pulling weapon, appears those teens reacted by moving away instead of engaging.
The info is very limited which often occurs, but I do NOT like this shooting at this point. Even if the LG was threatened and lunged at the by the two youths both seemed to back off when he pulled his firearm. IMO, there was time to allow for a clear disengagement or confirm an ongoing threat. Also, I would never have chosen that busy sidewalk adjacent to a full parking lot with multiple paths of converging people to work on a bike chain. The lifeguard may have been hypervigilant having already shot two dogs, it seems as he could have put himself in better position and even moved away from the bike. Those two would never have gotten very far with the bike and now he is sitting in Cook County jail with very a long and difficult legal fight ahead.
some more info would be nice, the backgrounds on the teens for one and were they armed?