MARKHAM, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago police officer was acquitted Wednesday in the death of a 95-year-old World War II veteran whom he shot with a beanbag gun at an assisted living facility.
Park Forest Police Officer Craig Taylor was charged with felony reckless conduct for the July 2013 death of John Wrana, who died from internal bleeding. He was found not guilty after a bench trial, with the judge saying Taylor showed restraint as Wrana wielded a knife and acted as he was trained.
“There was nothing criminal about his actions,” Cook County Judge Luciano Panici said in a courtroom packed with police officers supporting Taylor and Wrana’s relatives in Markham, south of Chicago.
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“It is absolutely crystal clear that Craig Taylor did absolutely nothing wrong,” Ekl said.
Ekl said Taylor wouldn’t speak publicly about the case because of a pending lawsuit filed by Wrana’s family, but that the judge’s verdict would likely weaken that case.
