Man accused of killing Chicago cop tells jury he opened fire 'out of pure fear'

Steven Montano told a jury Friday that he shot and killed a Chicago police officer "out of pure fear."

Montano, 21, said he instinctively turned and opened fire when he heard a call to stop as he fled officers and ran toward a Gage Park playground on March 1, 2023. Officer Andres Vasquez Lasso was fatally struck in an exchange of gunfire.

“I was terrified,” Montano told jurors. “ I felt fear in my heart. I was in fear for my life at that point.”

Facing first-degree murder charges, Montano said a deep-seated fear of police had prompted him to run from them that day. He claimed he had been unjustly stopped and searched throughout his life and had repeatedly fled from officers.

During one such encounter in July 2022, he was arrested after running from a car that was wanted in connection to a shooting. He claimed Friday that he didn't know about the shooting or why police were chasing him.

Montano told jurors that he dropped out of George Westinghouse College Prep that year and moved in with his girlfriend, Linda Perea. He said Perea, 37, was aware he was 18 at the time and that she acknowledged he was the same age as her oldest child, Antonio Reyes, who has been charged in six killings and is being held at Cook County Jail with Montano.

On Tuesday, Perea told jurors that she and Montano were arguing at her home on the day of the shooting when he charged at her and told her he had a gun. She said she called 911 and reported that Montano was armed, but he hung up on dispatchers and threw away the phone.

When officers arrived, Montano testified he jumped from a window into a gangway and ran toward an alley with a gun. Vasquez Lasso arrived as backup and spotted Montano running toward Sawyer Elementary School, prosecutors said. Vasquez Lasso can be seen on his body camera chasing Montano, repeatedly ordering him to stop.

As Montano arrived on the school playground, he turned and pointed a gun at the officer. Montano fired five times, hitting Vasquez Lasso in his head, arm and leg, prosecutors said. The officer fired twice, hitting Montano in his face.

The entire exchange was captured on Vasquez Lasso’s bodycam, which was played for jurors Thursday.

Officer Miguel Enciso arrived seconds later and found his partner on the ground, bleeding from his head. Montano was seated about 15 feet away, with a gun nearby. He then walked toward Enciso, begging the officer to kill him.

Fellow officers arrived and began rendering aid to Vasquez Lasso, but there were no signs of life, an officer testified Tuesday.

Officers carried Vasquez Lasso into a squad car and rushed him to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he later died.

Montano's trial has spanned the last week, with jurors hearing from a handful of responding officers, providing at times emotional testimony.

Vasquez Lasso is one of eight officers killed in line-of-duty shootings since 2018, according to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.

The 32-year-old personified the American dream, according to fellow officers. He came to the United States from Colombia at the age of 18, learned English and joined the Chicago Police Department at 27 years old.

Montano's defense has called the shooting an “extremely tragic situation,” but argues it was not first-degree murder.

John Catanzara, the Fraternal Order of Police president, called Montano’s testimony "all smoke and mirrors and nonsense.”

"He knew he was going to jail for having a gun and the domestic, and he did everything he could to try and prevent that from happening," Catanzara told reporters Friday. "And Andres paid with his life.

"Everybody that was in that courtroom can see the downside of the justice system, and that's the torture that this family has to go through listening to this nonsense of an excuse of why this offender did what he did when he murdered Andres two years ago.”

Jurors will return to court Monday to hear closing arguments in the case before they begin deliberations.