Jury finds man guilty of killing Chicago police officer
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Criminal Courts Reporter rhussain@suntimes.com January 26, 2012 2:54PM
Lamar Cooper (left) was sentenced to life in prison for killing Chicago Police officer Nathaniel Taylor Jr. in 2008.
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Updated: March 27, 2012 11:57AM
Lamar Cooper was put behind bars for shooting at a police officer over two decades ago.
When the purported drug dealer fired at another plain-clothed cop years later, he didn’t miss, piercing Chicago Police officer Nathaniel Taylor Jr.’s body with a pair of deadly bullets.
On Thursday, a Cook County jury rejected Cooper’s claims that he couldn’t see Taylor’s badge and mistakenly thought he was on the cusp of being robbed as the narcotics officer approached his Chevrolet Geo Prizm in 2008.
Cooper remained expressionless and placed a finger to his lips when he was found guilty for Taylor’s murder and three counts of possession of a controlled substance for the drugs recovered in his Southeast Side home.
The large crowd that snaked into the hallway outside Judge Nicholas Ford’s courtroom erupted in applause as Cooper, wearing a black blazer, was led away by sheriff’s deputies. A few of the officers sitting along the benches sobbed and hugged one another.
Cooper, 40, faces mandatory life in prison because jurors believed he knew or should have known Taylor was an officer when he discharged his weapon and shot the 39-year-old in early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2008.
“I’m just happy Nate can rest in peace and that justice has been served,” said Angel Gogins, the mother of Taylor’s young daughter.
“A weight has been lifted off me.”
Earlier Thursday, defense attorney LaFarrell Moffett argued that Cooper believed he was acting in self defense. Moffett said that his client’s “bad decision” in pulling the trigger was motivated by a need to protect his wife and kids who were sleeping inside the family’s home in the 7900 block of South Clyde.
But assistant state’s attorney Brian Sexton said Cooper was only concerned about “protecting his drug empire,” pointing to the cocaine Cooper stored in the freezer next to his children’s colorful popsicles.
Sexton’s partner James McKay also discredited the theory that at 5:30 a.m. there was not enough light to see the star around Taylor’s neck as the officer tried to serve Cooper with a search warrant.
“If it was so dark, Mr. Sure Shot hit the target right in the bull’s eye twice,” McKay said forcefully.
“. . . If it was so dark out there, how could he see Nate’s dark gun and not his shiny star?”
Taylor was a “good cop, doing it the right way” trying to deliver the warrant in the least obtrusive way instead of kicking down the doors and disturbing Cooper’s family and dogs, McKay said.
“This villain took one of our heroes away,” the prosecutor said.
Cooper was also injured in the incident when Taylor’s partner returned fire and shot him nine times.
Cooper had already served three years of a six-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of another Chicago Police officer in 1990.
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