Charles Leto, lifeguard charged with shooting 2 teens, no longer works for Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District said Tuesday night that Charles Leto, the lifeguard charged in a shooting that killed one teenage boy and wounded another in Douglass Park last week, is no longer an employee
The Park District said it placed Leto on unpaid emergency suspension on Friday, the day after the shooting. The district then took swift action to fire Leto under the process outlined in its collective bargaining agreement.
But Leto resigned in lieu of termination, the Park District said.
Leto has been placed on the Park District's Do Not Rehire list, meaning he cannot work for the Park District again in the future.
Leto, 55, was ordered held in First Appearance Court on Sunday on one count each of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
He is charged in the shooting this past Thursday evening that killed 15-year-old Marjay Dotson and seriously wounded 14-year-old Jeremy Herred this past Thursday in Douglass Park in the North Lawndale neighborhood. Jeremy is the cousin of Laquan McDonald, who was shot and killed by police in 2014.
Prosecutors said Leto opened fire on the teens following a quarrel with a third teenage boy identified as "Victim 3" after Leto found his bicycle had been moved. There was no evidence that the people who moved the bike were the teen victims in the case, nor that the teenage boys threatened Leto or were armed, prosecutors said.
The Park District said it is fully cooperating with the Chicago Police Department following the incident, and said it has also launched a comprehensive internal review to understand what led to the events of last week.
Meanwhile, CBS News Chicago learned that Leto was involved in another shooting more than two years ago.
Jacqui Korvas Michels said when Leto was her neighbor two years ago, he shot both of her dogs — killing one and injuring the other — in her alley next to her garage in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood.
CBS News Chicago did a story on that case back in February 2023, and on how a SWAT team came to look for the shooter after he walked away. Ultimately, police said when they found the man now known to be Leto, he told officers he had shot the dogs in fear for his life.
