Chicago Park District releases findings from internal review after Douglass Park shooting

CHICAGO (WGN) — After a Douglass Park shooting involving a lifeguard left one teen dead and another injured, the Chicago Park District released the results of an internal review that aimed to look for holes in departmental procedures involving employees.

According to the Chicago Park District, the internal review spanned two weeks and involved looking through emails, text messages, personal records and employee interviews before they released the report on Tuesday.

They found the person at the center of their internal review, 55-year-old Charles Leto, had no formal complaints filed against him, but employees and patrons had complained about his aggressive behavior on five separate occasions.

The report showed that since Leto was hired in 2023, he got into an altercation with a patron over an open pool door, screamed at a parent for using a cell phone on the pool deck, and engaged in a tense exchange of words with a head lifeguard over a towel that had been moved at Gill Park.

In another instance, he complained about unequal treatment due to him being a military veteran.

The fifth incident happened at the end of May at Austin Town Hall, when Leto banged on a locked bathroom door, with the aggressive behavior making a patron feel unsafe. He was then transferred to Sheridan Park and later moved to Douglass Park at the start of this summer season.

The report showed Leto did not face any disciplinary action for any of those workplace altercations, but was spoken to by a manager about his behavior.

WGN-TV also previously reported Leto shot two dogs and killed one in Lakeview in 2023 because he said he felt threatened by the animals. That didn’t show up on a background check because he wasn’t criminally charged.

Leto was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Marjay Dotson, and the attempted murder of 14-year-old Jeremy Reed after a June 26 shooting caught on camera at Douglass Park where he said he was acting in self-defense.