{"id":81061,"date":"2025-07-21T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81061\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T16:36:10","slug":"closing-arguments-begin-monday-in-chicago-police-officer-andres-mauricio-vasquez-lasso-murder-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/81061\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing arguments begin Monday in Chicago police officer Andr\u00e9s Mauricio V\u00e1squez Lasso murder trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Closing arguments in case against man accused of killing CPD officer to begin <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Closing arguments in case against man accused of killing CPD officer to begin<\/p>\n

01:16<\/p>\n

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Closing arguments will begin Monday in the trial of Steven Montano, accused of killing Chicago police officer Andres Vasquez Lasso in 2023.<\/p>\n

Closing arguments are set to begin at any moment as the end of the trial nears.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Montano took the stand in his own defense<\/a>. Wearing a pinstriped suit, Montano told the jury he shot officer Vasquez Lasso “out of pure fear.”<\/p>\n

He described past negative experiences with police and said those encounters shaped his state of mind that day in March of 2023.<\/p>\n

That day began with a domestic disturbance call. When officers arrived, including Officer Vasquez Lasso, Montano said he jumped out a window with a gun in his hand.<\/p>\n

He testified that he heard a voice telling him to stop near a playground, and without knowing it was an officer, he opened fire.<\/p>\n

Montano told the court he didn’t think and just reacted.<\/p>\n

When asked if he believed police would have shot him even if he surrendered, he said, “Yes.”<\/p>\n

Montano faces a first-degree murder charge, as well as charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and opening fire near a school building. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Closing arguments in case against man accused of killing CPD officer to begin Closing arguments in case against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,7122,5386,1818,17953],"class_list":{"0":"post-81061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-police-department","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-police-officers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114892202885479783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}