On the evening of August 7, 2021, three Chicago Police officers pulled over a gray Honda CRV with expired plates in West Englewood. The stop lasted under two minutes. By the end of it, one officer was dead, one was paralyzed, and a third was alive only because his attacker’s gun jammed.
The body-worn camera footage stayed sealed for nearly five years. It was shown to jurors in 2024 during the trial of the man who pulled the trigger. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole. Then the footage went back behind a court order.
This week, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released it. The criminal cases are over. The footage is public.
Her name was Officer Ella French.
WATCH THE BODYCAM HERE:
What the Bodycam Shows
The traffic stop began like any other. Officer Ella French, Officer Carlos Yanez Jr., and Officer Joshua Blas were on patrol just after 9 p.m. They spotted a vehicle with expired plates and initiated a stop.
There were three occupants in the SUV. Eric Morgan was driving. His brother, Emonte Morgan, was in the front passenger seat. A female passenger was in the back.
Officer French approached the driver’s side. Eric Morgan admitted he had marijuana in the vehicle. Officer Yanez spotted an open container of alcohol. All three occupants were asked to step out.
Eric Morgan handed over his keys and complied with the order to exit. As Emonte Morgan got out of the passenger side, he was still holding an open drink and a cellphone. Officer Yanez gave him repeated commands to put the items down. He refused.
Yanez moved to take physical control of him. Morgan pushed back. The two went into a struggle that moved toward the back of the vehicle, then collapsed into the front passenger seat. At the same time, Eric Morgan broke away and ran. Officer Blas chased after him.
Officer French came around the back of the vehicle to help Yanez. As she rounded the rear of the SUV, Emonte Morgan pulled a .22 caliber Glock from his waistband and opened fire.
Officer French was shot and killed.
Officer Yanez was shot five times. Four rounds struck him in the head. One struck his shoulder. He lost his right eye. He flatlined. He was paralyzed. Bullet fragments remain in his neck and shoulder to this day. He had to relearn how to walk. He no longer serves as a police officer.
Officer Blas turned and ran back toward his partners. Morgan turned the gun on him and pulled the trigger. The weapon malfunctioned.
Blas returned fire. Emonte Morgan was struck. Both Morgan brothers were taken into custody.
The Reality of the Traffic Stop
Traffic stops kill more American police officers than nearly any other call. The reason is structural. An officer approaches a vehicle blind. The driver knows what is in the car. The driver knows whether there is a warrant, a weapon, drugs, or a felony charge waiting on the other side of contact. The officer does not.
The officers on this stop did everything by the book. Three officers present for three occupants. Contraband identified. Occupants sequenced out of the vehicle. Hands controlled. Physical contact initiated on the suspect who refused to drop the items in his hands.
None of that mattered when the suspect decided to pull a gun.
Compliance is the only variable on a traffic stop that the citizen controls. Officer commands are not requests. They are not negotiations. They are not the start of a conversation. They exist because the alternative is what the bodycam captured that night.
Emonte Morgan was a convicted felon. He was prohibited from possessing a firearm. He had a loaded Glock in his waistband when he stepped out of that car. The officers had no way of knowing that. They asked him to put down a phone and a drink. He decided to fight. Then he decided to kill.
The Weapon and the Convictions
The pistol used in the murder was traced to a straw purchase. In March 2021, a man named Jamel Danzy bought the firearm from a licensed dealer in Hammond, Indiana, and handed it off to Emonte Morgan. Morgan was a convicted felon and could not legally possess a firearm himself. Danzy later pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to violate federal firearms laws.
Eric Morgan, the driver, pleaded guilty in 2023 to weapons charges and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Emonte Morgan went to trial in 2024. The bodycam footage from all three officers was the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case. The jury convicted him in hours. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years for the attempted murder of Officer Blas, plus an additional 7 years for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.
At sentencing, he told the court that Officer French had not been murdered. He called it an accidental death.
The judge disagreed. So did the jury. So does the bodycam.
What Was Lost
The footage that was sealed for nearly five years is now part of the public record. It exists because the courts decided the criminal cases were over and the public’s right to see what happened outweighed the protective orders that had kept it hidden.
What the footage shows is not complicated. It shows a young officer doing her job. It shows a felon choosing to fight, choosing to draw a weapon, and choosing to fire it. It shows the precise instant a routine traffic stop became a murder.
Officer Ella French was killed in the line of duty on August 7, 2021. Officer Carlos Yanez Jr. carried bullets out of that traffic stop and into a life he is still rebuilding. Officer Joshua Blas walked away because a firing pin failed to do its job.
The Morgans made every choice that ended Ella French’s life. The bodycam shows it. The verdict confirmed it. The footage will outlive all of them.
