'Hero' cop from scene of Officer Ella French shooting faces firing

CHICAGO — On Aug. 7, 2021, Chicago police Officer Thomas Raap rose to the occasion.

That night, a traffic stop ended in tragedy near 63rd and Bell in West Englewood. Officer Ella French was shot and killed, and her partner, Carlos Yanez, was shot in the head and critically wounded.

CPD officers soon swarmed the area. Four of them picked up Yanez from the pavement and put him in a squad car. Raap jumped in the vehicle too.

He talked with Yanez, reassuring him, as another officer drove “like a bat out of hell” east on 63rd Street toward the University of Chicago Medical Center in Hyde Park. Raap, 31, and other responding officers were later honored for heroism by the Fraternal Order of Police, as well as Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois State Police.

But now CPD is seeking to fire Raap, who, in the years since the shooting, has faced persistent legal trouble.

CPD’s effort to fire him stems from his alleged failure of a drug test in July 2022. CPD says his urine contained traces of cocaine.

FOP President John Catanzara, while not directly addressing the allegations against Raap, said officers who face daily exposure to the worst of humanity may resort to “coping mechanisms.”

“You don’t have to be involved in the actual shooting to suffer from PTSD to the point where, maybe, you’re so incapacitated mentally that you won’t be able to do this job ever again effectively because you need those other coping mechanisms, whether it’s alcohol, drugs, whatever the case may be, to get through your day,” Catanzara told the Tribune.

“Is it a permanent diagnosis? No, absolutely not. We know that PTSD is not a permanent thing, but whether someone wants to continue being the police at a later date or wants to walk away altogether, that doesn’t mean we abdicate our responsibility for getting them help,” he added.

Raap, his attorney, as well as spokespersons for CPD and the city’s Law Department, which handles CPD separation cases, either did not respond or declined to comment for this story. A CPD spokesperson, though, told the Tribune that Raap is on no-pay status.

Yanez lost an eye and bullets fired that day are still in his body, but he survived. Two months after the shooting, as he was released from the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Yanez said, “All my family and friends, thank you for all the support. From the officers that saved my life — you know, driving me to the University of Chicago — and the medical staff.”

Five months later, in January 2022, Yanez walked into the FOP’s lodge in the West Loop. It was then that Raap and eight other officers who aided Yanez were given the union’s Lifesaving Award.

The following July, city lawyers say, Raap failed a drug screen at police headquarters in Bronzeville. Raap entered rehab that month too, according to CPD records obtained by the Tribune via the Freedom of Information Act.

The administrative charges against Raap accuse him of violating three CPD rules: violation of any ordinance or law, committing an action that brings discredit upon CPD and disobedience of an order or directive. The first status hearing in the proceedings is scheduled for Jan. 22.

Since 2010, records show, 34 CPD officers have faced police board charges stemming from alleged drug or alcohol abuse, accounting for about 10% of all police board cases filed in that time.

Officers confronting substance abuse issues may be referred to the department’s professional counseling division, which “provides CPD members with a range of mental health support services to minimize the risk of harm from stress, trauma, alcohol and substance abuse, and mental illness.” Information on whether Raap did so was not immediately available.

Data from the city’s Office of Inspector General show 19 sworn CPD officers, who are alcohol and substance abuse counselors, are currently assigned to PCD, in addition to other civilian staff members.

Adjudications of the most serious police discipline cases — in which CPD seeks to fire an officer or impose a monthslong suspension — were largely halted through much of 2024 amid an ongoing legal dispute between the city and FOP. All year, the department has filed administrative charges against just seven officers, including Raap. The charges range from city residency violations to unjustified use of deadly force.

Court records show Raap was arrested at least four times since the French/Yanez shooting. Last May, he was sentenced to 12 months of court supervision and 50 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to reckless driving following a crash in west suburban Stone Park.

Another case, in which Raap is charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting arrest, remains pending in Kane County, court records show.

Two of Raap’s arrests occurred in the South Loop in April 2023.

In each instance, Cook County prosecutors charged him with aggravated use of a deadly weapon, a misdemeanor. Raap was further ordered to surrender any firearms to CPD, and both cases were dismissed the same day, May 5, 2023, court records show.

Later that month, Raap was awarded the Medal of Honor by Pritzker and the Illinois State Police for “exceptional bravery or heroism while performing their duties as a law enforcement officer,” for his conduct to help Yanez.

“Every single one of our Medal of Honor Awardees exemplify the unwavering unselfishness and courage that it takes to be a true public servant,” Pritzker said in a statement.

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