CHICAGO — A third man has been charged in the murder of off-duty Chicago Police Officer John Rivera.
Jaquan Washington, 22, has been charged with three felony counts of attempted first-degree murder. Menelik Jackson, 24, and Jovan Battle, 32, are both facing first-degree murder and other charges in the case.
The shooting happened in the early hours of Saturday, March 23. Rivera and some friends had just left a restaurant in the 600 block of North Clark Street around 3:30 a.m. He was sitting in a vehicle when two men approached and one fired shots into the car, striking Rivera in the chest, arm and mouth.
CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson described the attack as a hate crime since Rivera was targeted; not because he was a police officer, but because he was Latino. Police say his alleged killers had a run-in with some Latinos on a party bus earlier, and after failing to locate them and retaliate, opened fire on the first Hispanic man they saw.
Rivera was on the job as a police officer for two years before he was killed.
Washington is scheduled to appear in bond court Wednesday.
