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Hershel Weinberger

Age : 13

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 07/14/2021

Location : 7300 block of North Sacramento Avenue & Chase Avenue (West Rogers Park)

City : Chicago

County : Cook

State : Illinois

Agency : Chicago Police Department (off-duty officer)

Officer(s) :Michael Leverett

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police officer collision

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 07/14/2021, 9-year-old Hershel Weinberger was killed when off-duty Chicago Police Department Officer Michael Leverett struck him with a Toyota Tundra pickup truck while Hershel was riding his bicycle through the crosswalk at North Sacramento and West Chase avenues in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood.
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At approximately 8:00 p.m., Hershel was riding east on the north sidewalk of Chase Avenue, returning home after playing at a friend’s house. Children younger than 12 were legally permitted to ride bicycles on Chicago sidewalks. Hershel entered the marked crosswalk across Sacramento Avenue at an intersection controlled by four-way stop signs. Leverett was driving north on Sacramento.
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Witnesses reported that Leverett appeared to run the stop sign before striking Hershel. Witnesses also reported that Hershel’s bicycle was dragged beneath Leverett’s pickup before the vehicle stopped. Neighbors immediately came to Hershel’s aid.
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Leverett gave police a different account. According to the crash report, he said he stopped at the stop sign, looked in both directions and proceeded north through the intersection. Leverett said he heard a loud noise, stopped just beyond the crosswalk and then found Hershel on the ground beside his truck.
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Hershel’s parents were nearby and heard the collision. His father, Shamai Weinberger, rushed to the intersection and held his son while they waited for emergency personnel. Hershel was transported to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead at 8:31 p.m.
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Leverett underwent alcohol and drug testing approximately three hours after the collision. Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said Leverett’s Breathalyzer test was negative.
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Chicago police initially announced no citation or criminal charge against Leverett. On 07/16/2021, police disclosed that he had been cited for failure to exercise due care for a person in the roadway. Despite eyewitness accounts that Leverett appeared to have driven through the stop sign, the publicly reported citation was for failure to exercise due care rather than a stop-sign violation.
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Hershel lived with his family in the 2900 block of West Chase Avenue, only about a block from where he was killed. He was one of four boys and had a twin brother. He attended Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School in Skokie. His father described him as a typical happy 9-year-old who enjoyed life, while family friend and teacher Ruth Lee remembered his kindness and vibrant personality.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Michael Leverett was 48 and an off-duty Chicago police officer when he killed Hershel. His disciplinary history included a serious incident more than two decades earlier for which the Chicago police superintendent sought his dismissal.
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On 02/25/2000, while off duty, Leverett drank alcohol at the My Mistake bar in Chicago while carrying an unregistered firearm. According to the subsequent Chicago Police Board case, Leverett later went to a woman’s apartment, physically grabbed or pushed her, threatened suicide, placed his gun in his mouth or relinquished it to the woman and told her to shoot him. Leverett also discharged the firearm during the incident.
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The Chicago police superintendent filed disciplinary charges and sought Leverett’s dismissal from the department. A majority of Police Board members found him guilty of misconduct but declined to fire him, instead imposing an 11-month suspension. Leverett subsequently returned to police duty.
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Leverett later became a substantial overtime earner within CPD. A Chicago Sun-Times investigation of police overtime found that he received $52,433 in overtime during a three-month period in 2018.
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More than 20 years after the disciplinary case, Leverett was still employed by CPD when he struck and killed Hershel while off duty. The fatal collision brought renewed public scrutiny to the earlier Police Board decision to suspend rather than terminate him.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2021/07/15/off-duty-cop-who-reportedly-ran-stop-sign-killing-boy-on-bike-has-not-been-cited/
https://chi.streetsblog.org/2021/07/30/cop-who-killed-hershel-weinberger-9-was-previously-suspended-after-drunken-suicide-threat
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/7/14/22578113/hershel-weinberger-rogers-park-crash-chicago-police-officer-bicycle
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2021/7/16/22579975/hershel-weinberger-west-rogers-park-citation
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/west-rogers-park-boy-on-bike-killed/
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/hershel-weinberger-9-year-old-bicycle-accident-west-rogers-park/
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/rogers-park-chicago-police-officer-charged-hitting-boy-on-bicycle/
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/off-duty-chicago-police-officer-strikes-kills-9-year-old-boy-riding-bike-in-west-rogers-park
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/off-duty-officer-gets-citation-after-fatally-striking-9-year-old-boy-riding-bike-in-west-rogers-park