Rekia Boyd, a 22-year-old Black American woman, was fatally shot on March 21, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. The incident occurred when Dante Servin, an off-duty Hispanic Chicago police detective, approached a group of individuals, including Boyd, in Douglass Park on the West Side of Chicago. Servin had driven to the park after making a noise complaint to the police. Upon arrival, he engaged in a verbal altercation with the group.
During this confrontation, Servin fired his weapon, striking Rekia Boyd in the head and another individual, Antonio Cross, in the hand. The Chicago Police Department initially claimed that Servin discharged his weapon because Cross had approached him with a gun, but it was later revealed that Cross was holding a cell phone.
Following the shooting, Boyd's family filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago on April 5, 2012. The lawsuit was settled in March 2013, with the city agreeing to pay $4.5 million to Boyd's family. In November 2013, Dante Servin was charged with involuntary manslaughter. He requested a bench trial, and on April 20, 2015, Judge Dennis J. Porter cleared Servin of all charges in a rare directed verdict. Judge Porter ruled that since the shooting was intentional, Servin could not be charged with recklessness, stating that the crime, if any, would be first-degree murder. However, due to double jeopardy protections, Servin could not be charged with murder following this ruling.
The case sparked public protests and became a significant moment for the Black Lives Matter movement, which has highlighted the deaths of Black girls and women at the hands of police. In November 2015, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy suggested that Dante Servin should be fired by the Chicago Police Board. Servin resigned from the police force on May 17, 2016, just two days before a departmental hearing was to decide his fate. In November 2019, Servin requested that the case be expunged from his record, but a judge denied this request, as well as a subsequent request to seal the case's records.
