NORTH LAWNDALE — The lifeguard accused of fatally capturing a teenage boy and wounding one other exterior a West Facet pool final week has resigned from his place and is banned from working on the Chicago Park District, officers stated.
Charles Leto resigned as of Tuesday and was positioned on the Park District’s “Do Not Rehire Checklist,” the district introduced.
Leto was beforehand positioned on unpaid emergency suspension Friday after he was arrested for the deadly capturing of 15-year-old Marjay Dotson and wounding of 14-year-old Jeremy Herred. The Park District stated it had begun the method of terminating Leto’s employment, with him resigning in lieu of termination.
“This horrific act of violence has shaken us all, and we’re dedicated to doing all the pieces in our energy to make sure that nothing like this ever occurs once more,” the Park District stated in assertion.
Earlier Tuesday, neighbors gathered for a rally at Douglass Park demanding accountability from the Park District, the Solar-Instances reported. The Chi North Lawndale Chamber of Commerce circulated a petition demanding a public apology from the Park District, everlasting safety at Douglass Park, a plan for park workers, together with an audit and cultural competency programming and necessary background checks for all park workers within the metropolis, in response to the Solar-Instances.
“Now we have acquired the petition circulated by the Chi North Lawndale Chamber of Commerce, and we look ahead to assembly with petition organizers and stakeholders to handle their issues and work collectively towards accountability, therapeutic, and lasting change,” the Park District stated in a press release.
Neighbors have spoken out about Leto, saying he displayed a sample of anger and violence main as much as Thursday’s capturing that ought to have prevented him from being employed by the Park District.
The Douglass Park capturing is a minimum of the second time in recent times Leto has fired his gun and claimed self-defense. In 2023, Leto shot two canines in Lakeview, killing one and wounding one other, in response to former neighbors and a lawyer for one of many pool capturing victims. That capturing prompted an hours-long police SWAT standoff, leading to lockdowns at native colleges, Block Membership reported on the time.
“It is a disturbed particular person with a sample of violent conduct that by no means ought to have been employed by the Park District, not to mention positioned in [a] place to oversee or oversee kids,” stated Jeff Neslund, Herred’s legal professional, in a press release. “Any individual has to take duty for hiring this free cannon together with his propensity for violence. The households which were devastated by this capturing deserve an evidence.”
Leslie Balaz, a former neighbor of Leto, instructed Block Membership that she skilled put up traumatic stress dysfunction and feared for her canine’s security whereas residing in the identical constructing as Leto after the capturing. She stated she was allowed to interrupt her lease and transfer out three months after the capturing. Upon studying that Leto was concerned within the Douglass Park capturing, Balaz stated she was shocked however not stunned.
“It’s like a carbon copy [of events] besides this time he took the lifetime of an harmless child and probably one other,” Balaz stated.
Leto was employed as a lifeguard in 2023, months after the capturing of the canines in Lakeview, in response to the Solar-Instances.
In its assertion, the Park District stated Leto’s background screening throughout his hiring course of “didn’t produce any points that will prohibit employment by the District.”
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