CHICAGO (WLS) — Viewers are advised that some footage in this report may be distressing.

This Tuesday, the man who was shot by Chicago police at a downtown CTA station several years ago, took the stand in his civil trial.

The incident involved Ariel Roman, who was shot while unarmed during an altercation at the Grand CTA Red Line station back in 2020.

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Following the jury selection on Monday, the trial commenced with opening statements on Tuesday.

Later that day, Roman appeared in court to provide his testimony.

Roman claims his civil rights were violated, and that police did not need to shoot him.

He admitted he had been drinking and had drugs on him that February day when he was shot twice by Chicago police officers. He says it was because of that he resisted their attempts to detain him, after he illegally crossed between cars on a moving Red Line train.

Cell phone video shows the moments just before Roman was first shot, as he struggled with officers in the vestibule of the CTA’s Red Line platform.

The encounter took place shortly after then-Officer Melvina Bogard and her partner, Bernard Butler, witnessed Roman crossing between moving train cars.

“When I heard the shot, I thought she had done a warning shot,” Roman said, admitting he did not realize what had happened at first.

Both CTA and witness video shows Roman was shot twice by Bogard following a five-minute struggle, during which Roman resisted officers’ attempts to detain him, first using handcuffs, then pepper spray.

Cell phone video played in court clearly shows Butler yelling “shoot him,” not once, but multiple times.

Butler’s attorneys said his client meant for Bogard to shoot him with pepper spray.

“I didn’t want to be handcuffed. I didn’t want them to search the bag,” Roman said.

The officer who shot Roman was found not guilty of battery and misconduct in a 2022 trial.

The officer’s attorneys argued she fired in self-defense.

She has since resigned from the department.

Roman did face charges, including resisting arrest, but they were later dropped.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended both officers be fired.

Butler was suspended for a year without pay.

According to Roman’s lawyers, the city has already spent more than a million dollars defending this case.

It’s unusual that they did not reach a pre-trial settlement, as is common with police-involved shootings.

The civil lawsuit aims to prove that both Bogard and Butler violated Roman’s constitutional rights: she, by using excessive force against him, he, by failing to intervene and ordering the shooting.

Bogard’s attorney Tuesday said she did not mean to shoot Roman the second time.

Because this is a civil case and not a criminal one, the jury only has to decide if the allegations against the officers are more likely true than not.

Testimony continues Wednesday at the Dirksen Federal Building.

The trial is expected to last up to two weeks.

The city of Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trial beginning.