Roshad McIntosh

Roshad McIntosh, 19, was shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Robert Slechter on August 24, 2014, after being chased into the yard of a residence in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Police said McIntosh pointed a gun at Slechter, who fired three shots; a loaded pistol was recovered at the scene, though no usable fingerprints were ever identified on it. Witnesses told McIntosh's family he was actually kneeling on the ground with his hands raised, unarmed, when he was shot, and his family's attorneys have alleged the gun was planted after the fact. Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority cleared Slechter in 2015; after the agency was replaced by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the case was reopened at the family's request and, after a two-year investigation, COPA again found the shooting justified. A separate officer at the scene was recommended for firing after his account was contradicted by surveillance footage, but he retired before the Police Board acted. The City of Chicago moved to settle the family's federal lawsuit for $2.25 million a decade after the shooting. No one has ever been charged in McIntosh's death.

Chicago, IL · Cook County

• 2014: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The chase, the shooting, and the recovery of a firearm at the scene, per the Independent Police Review Authority's original 2015 report and the Chicago Sun-Times's reporting on the case's history.
• Police confronted a group of people, including McIntosh, on West Polk Street after receiving a tip about armed men; McIntosh ran, and Officer Robert Slechter pursued him into the yard of a nearby two-flat before firing three shots.
• A loaded pistol was found on the front porch of the house after the shooting, but investigators were unable to identify any usable fingerprints on it, according to a 2017 Chicago Tribune report.
• Witnesses told McIntosh's family he had already surrendered, kneeling on the ground with his hands raised and unarmed, when he was shot; his family's attorneys have alleged police planted the recovered firearm after the fact.
• The Independent Police Review Authority closed its investigation in October 2015, finding the shooting justified or “within policy,” and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office did not file criminal charges.
• The case was reopened in 2017 at the family's request after IPRA was replaced by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability; several officers at the scene had changed their initial accounts after being shown surveillance video that contradicted their original statements.
• COPA's renewed investigation again found Slechter's actions justified; the agency separately recommended that another officer at the scene, Saharat Sampim, be fired for giving an initial account contradicted by surveillance footage, but Sampim retired while that firing was still pending before the Police Board.
• A City Council committee considered a proposed $2.25 million settlement of the family's federal lawsuit in March 2025, nearly eleven years after the shooting.

• Whether McIntosh was in fact armed and pointed a weapon at Slechter, as police maintained, or was unarmed and already surrendering, as witnesses told his family, was disputed from the outset and was never resolved by any criminal trial since none was brought, and the absence of usable fingerprints on the recovered gun did not resolve the question either way.
• Whether the firearm recovered at the scene was placed there after the shooting, as the family's attorneys have alleged, was never independently confirmed or disproven through any public accounting reviewed for this summary.
• The full content of the surveillance footage that led multiple officers to change their initial accounts, and what it specifically showed about the shooting itself as opposed to officers' conduct afterward, has not been made comprehensively public.

• Chicago Sun-Times — “Family of teen killed in fatal foot chase could get $2.25 million from city to settle lawsuit”
• CNN — “Her son was killed by Chicago police. Five years later, a judge's ruling could bring her closer to getting answers”
• People's Law Office — press release on the family's federal civil rights lawsuit
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs