Content warning: graphic descriptions of police violence

Early in the morning of February 8, 2025, a car slammed into a utility pole at a high rate of speed on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

The single-car crash received little attention at the time; however, a newly amended lawsuit alleges that Chicago police officer Evan Solano had engaged in a “ghost” pursuit—a chase without lights, sirens, and notification to dispatch—for over a mile prior to the fatal crash. 

29-year-old Eliseo Maya, a passenger in the vehicle Solano allegedly chased, was killed, and another passenger was seriously injured. The car was split in two by its collision with the pole.

Officer Solano, now a Field Training Officer instructing new recruits in the 16th Police District, is the same officer who fatally shot 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez in the back as he ran from police in 2021.

Maya’s fiancé and mother of their two daughters initially filed a wrongful death lawsuit in May 2025 against Fernan Millian-Morales, the driver of the vehicle. 

New video evidence came to light in January 2026, however, after city lawyers representing the Chicago Police Department (CPD) lost a legal battle to suppress attorneys’ subpoena. Based on the new evidence, the family’s attorneys recently amended their complaint to add the City of Chicago as a defendant on January 26. After learning of his role in the crash, they filed a motion to add Solano on April 2.

“It was the duty of Defendant Solano to refrain from acting with an utter indifference or conscious disregard for the safety of others,” alleges the complaint. Attorneys claim Solano disregarded traffic signals and violated several department policies during the chase.

According to the lawsuit, Solano chased Millian-Morales’ vehicle for “over one mile” on westbound Irving Park Road. After turning north on Oak Park Avenue, Millian-Morales lost control and crashed into a light pole near Taft Freshman Academy.

The police incident report from the crash, completed by Solano, does not mention following or pursuing the car. 

According to his report, around 2:15 a.m., officers witnessed the car turn from Irving Park Road onto Oak Park Avenue at a high rate of speed before it lost control and crashed:

City attorneys argue that the driver was solely responsible for the crash.

“[T]he sole proximate cause of decedent’s death was therefore the conduct of the driver, and the alleged actions of the officers were not a proximate cause of decedent’s death,” they allege in court filings.

Radio traffic from that evening between dispatchers at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) and police gave no indication of a pursuit. An officer identifying himself by the same beat number assigned to Solano notified dispatchers of a major crash and requested ambulances:

Unraveled obtained GPS logs for the police vehicle Solano was driving on February 8, 2025 through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The logs show Solano quickly accelerated westbound on Irving Park Road, reaching a speed of 76 mph just before turning on Oak Park Avenue.

Both Maya and the woman in the car were completely ejected from the vehicle in the crash. Maya went into traumatic cardiac arrest on the scene and was pronounced dead shortly after at the hospital.

Millian-Morales, the driver of the vehicle, was cited at the time with failure to reduce speed, a petty traffic offense. 

Last week, on April 2, the family’s attorney Matthew Jenkins, with the law firm Passen Powell Jenkins, filed a motion to dismiss Millian-Morales from the case after a proposed $10,000 settlement. Lawyers representing the city said they planned to file an objection to the dismissal.

The next day—fourteen months after the crash—city lawyers presented a new citation against Millian-Morales in traffic court for negligent driving, a municipal code violation.

Video evidence produced to the court remains under seal. 

Unraveled submitted a FOIA request to CPD for body-worn camera videos and other police records generated by the incident; however, Chicago police denied the request, citing an “ongoing investigation” into the crash.

A litany of investigations

Evan Solano faced termination over three years ago after shooting and killing 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez during a chase that started at a gas station. He was promoted to the position of Field Training Officer (FTO) in April 2024 and has been training probationary police officers in the Northwest Side 16th District since. Solano and his partner Officer Sammy Encarnacion initiated the chase, which ended with Solano shooting Alvarez in the back on a neighbor’s front lawn, with their police vehicle. Alvarez was on foot at the time and holding only a bag of snacks. 

Solano later told investigators he thought Alvarez was turning to shoot at him. The police board ultimately concluded that video shows Alvarez stumbling, and he “was attempting to regain his footing—not positioning himself to take a shot at the officers.” 

Alvarez was found to have had a mobile phone in one hand, and a gun in the other. At no point is he seen on video aiming his gun at police. As he ran, he appeared to attempt to use his phone, however.

Videos of the shooting sparked outrage and demonstrations in the spring of 2021. Protesters called for Solano and his partner, Officer Sammy Encarnacion, to be fired.

Investigators with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) recommended separation for the two tactical officers—but then-superintendent David Brown disagreed. In the end, COPA’s recommendation to fire Solano was overridden by the superintendent and police board, landing him a suspension of only twenty days. Alvarez’s family would later file a federal civil rights suit against the city, which continues to this day.

Solano was stripped of his badge between June 2021 and October 2022. During that time, he was detailed to the Alternate Response Section, a landing pad for cops with serious misconduct issues under investigation. In total, Solano spent approximately three years on desk duty, pending the investigation and disciplinary proceedings. Less than four months after finally returning to his beat in the 16th District, he was promoted to his new training role.

Encarnacion would eventually resign in 2023 after COPA recommended separation following two other unrelated investigations. He was found to have violated several department policies, including a pattern of intoxication off-duty and domestic violence. In 2023, he opened fire without justification at two men outside a Norwood Park Subway.

Solano has also faced other investigations. Just two months after killing Alvarez, he made headlines following an apparent road rage meltdown. A witness recorded him in the street in the heart of Logan Square brandishing his gun and arguing with another driver. 

CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs (BIA) closed their investigation into the incident, citing the lack of a sworn affidavit. BIA investigates reported misconduct that does not fall under the purview of COPA, and is primarily staffed by Chicago police officers.

Solano and Encarnacion were also investigated for their role in an alcohol-fueled fight in a Northwest Side Irish bar that left both officers bloodied in September 2020. In early 2025, Solano was served with a 35-day suspension over the incident, which he appealed. Unraveled cannot confirm the current status of that appeal.

Ghost pursuits

The Chicago Police Department’s vehicular pursuit policy, last updated in 2020, requires that police officers continuously evaluate and balance the need to apprehend an individual with the “inherent danger” of a pursuit. It also requires officers to immediately notify dispatch once a pursuit is in progress, and mandates flashing police lights and sirens. The lights and sirens also serve the purpose of automatically activating each police vehicle’s in-car camera system, which records video from the view of the car’s dashboard.

Despite the policy, the city has paid at least $130 million since January 2025 to resolve lawsuits stemming from injuries and deaths caused by police chases.

In 2017, officers Shawn Susnis and Megan Ryan engaged in a high-speed pursuit without engaging lights or sirens while also driving an unmarked police vehicle. The car officers chased collided with a vehicle driven by 47-year-old Stacy Vaughn-Harrell, killing her and seriously injuring her daughter.

In 2023, a jury awarded Vaughn-Harrell’s family $10.2 million. City lawyers appealed the verdict; then, last March, they recommended a $27 million settlement. According to the family’s attorneys, newly discovered video came to light that allegedly showed officers had attempted to coverup the pursuit. 

“They tried to pass it off as a regular traffic crash,” the family’s attorney, Lance Northcutt, said at a press conference. “The cover-up was wide. The cover-up was systemic.”

In June 2023, Angel Eduardo Alvarez Montesinos, age 25, was killed when a vehicle being chased crashed into his car in Homan Square. Investigators determined officers Michael Spilotro III and his partner Erik Arroyo caused a fatal multi-vehicle collision as they sped through rush hour traffic on Roosevelt Road without lights and sirens—and without informing dispatch of their pursuit.

In January, City Council members approved a $22 million settlement to Angel Alvarez’s family. CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling concurred with COPA’s recommendation to terminate Spilotro. He remains on the force pending proceedings before the police board or an arbitrator.

At least 22 people were killed during pursuits initiated by Chicago police between 2017 and 2022, according to data published by The Chronicle. 

Jenkins reiterated that video evidence shows Solano engaged in an undeclared pursuit that led to Maya’s death.

“The information we’ve obtained in this case demonstrates officer Evan Solano engaged in an unauthorized police chase on February 8, 2025, that led to the death of Eliseo Maya. We are committed to getting justice for his two young daughters in this case,” Jenkins said in a statement to Unraveled.

A COPA spokesperson confirmed to Unraveled that they did not receive notification of the crash from CPD, and the agency has not initiated an investigation.  

A spokesperson for CPD confirmed the crash remains “an open investigation” with the Major Accident Investigations Unit.