Family members of two people killed by Chicago police during a weekend shooting said Sunday they are outraged and heartbroken by their loved ones’ deaths, joining activists to call for sweeping changes in the way officers interact with black residents throughout the city.
“Police are supposed to serve us and protect us, and instead they kill us,” said Janet Cooksey, whose 19-year-old son, Quintonio LeGrier, was shot and killed early Saturday when police were called to his father’s house in the West Garfield Park neighborhood for a domestic disturbance. “What’s wrong with this picture?”
Bettie Jones, 55, who lived downstairs from LeGrier in the 4700 block of West Erie Street, also was shot and killed when police were responding to a call of a man carrying a bat. Responding police shot and killed LeGrier after he became combative, a Chicago police statement said. Authorities acknowledged Jones had been shot by accident.
The shootings were the first fatal police-involved shootings in Chicago since the release of the Laquan McDonald shooting video, which has led to a series of demonstrations in the city, including Christmas Eve protests on the Magnificent Mile.
A flock of city and church leaders responded to the West Garfield Park shootings Sunday at a news conference and vigil in front of the house, criticizing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s response to police shootings and pushing for changes to the way officers treat residents and are trained to respond to volatile situations.
Some family members asked city residents to respond to the shooting with calm, while others called for a march on City Hall and for members of the black community to take to the streets to demand action from city leaders. Rep. Danny Davis and Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, were among a few elected officials who noted they didn’t have any more details than the public.
“Police officers have batons, police officers have Tasers, police officers have (pepper) spray,” Ervin said. “But I don’t know how a bat instantly equals a bullet.”
Police, who have offered scant details of the shooting, have not said whether responding officers were equipped with a Taser.
Sam Adam Jr., an attorney who is representing the Jones family, said family members told him that Jones received a call early Saturday informing her that police were on their way to the residence. She went to answer the door, Adam said.
“If there’s one person who should feel safe when the police arrive at her door, it’s her,” Adam said. He said several shell casings from a police weapon were recovered near the sidewalk at least 20 feet from the front door. Jones and LeGrier were reportedly found near the doorway, said Adam, adding that he did not believe police would have been under immediate threat from that distance.
“That gives me great pause and great concern as to whether this was justified,” Adam said.
Basileios Foutris, an attorney for Antonio LeGrier, Quintonio’s father, said the teen was found lying halfway between the vestibule and Jones’ apartment after the shooting — his legs in the vestibule and the rest of his body in the apartment. Jones was found lying on the floor in her apartment, Foutris said.
The Rev. Marshall Hatch, pastor of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, which Jones attended, led dozens of mourners at the vigil in singing “This Little Light of Mine” as a tribute to the slain mother of five and bakery worker.
“God has a way often of using blood of the innocent to proclaim a message that cannot be ignored,” Hatch said. “… She was simply being a good neighbor to open the door for the police. She’s now become a victim of police violence in Chicago.”
Despite a light drizzle, one of Jones’ daughters hung a large portrait of her mother on the trunk of a tree in the front yard while Cooksey lit small candles for her son with relatives and three of her son’s Northern Illinois University classmates.
Albert Person, LeGrier’s cousin and a friend of Jones’, also questioned why police fired at the two, claiming they did so from across the front yard as his relative stood in the doorway. LeGrier was holding a baseball bat but was not an immediate threat to officers, he said.
The medical examiner’s office said Sunday that LeGrier died of multiple gunshot wounds and that Jones died of a gunshot wound to the chest. The medical examiner’s office did not release more specific information, including how many times LeGrier was shot or where bullets struck his body. Family members and activists said LeGrier was shot seven times.
“This has to stop, and this has to stop now,” said Ja’Mal Green, who has been a leader in the protests in the wake of the McDonald video release. “We need to put more pressure on leaders to finally change the CPD culture in our neighborhoods, and to finally change how the police act toward us.”
Green said of Emanuel: “You failed us before, but now’s your time to stand up, or step down.”
Emanuel, who is vacationing in Cuba with his family, directed the new acting chief administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority and the interim police superintendent to meet as soon as possible to review the department’s response to mental health crisis calls.
“While their investigation is underway, we must also make real changes within our police department today, and it is clear changes are needed to how officers respond to mental health crises,” Emanuel said in a statement.
“The changes we have made in recent weeks are just a beginning — not an end,” the statement read. “We will continue to ask tough questions of the police department, of the investigative agencies, and of ourselves, to drive the reforms the people of Chicago deserve and expect.”
The mayor spoke with members of the Jones family Sunday morning, Emanuel’s spokesman said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson also visited with the family and said that systemic changes are needed.
“There’s no reason why this teen should have been shot seven times. Seven times,” Jackson said.
As for Jones, Jackson said, “In a war zone, even the innocent are killed.”
Family members said Jones was active in community groups, participating in marches and meetings with youth to try to make a difference in the neighborhood.
Susan Clay, who volunteered with Jones at the nonprofit group Action Now, said she never thought a member of the group would become a victim of the violence they work hard to stop. “I’m frustrated. I’m angry,” Clay said. “Here we have another situation where an innocent person was killed,” she said. “Now this hits closer to home.”
LeGrier’s family called into question reports about the teen’s mental condition, saying he was an engineering honors student who had problems like any other teen.
LeGrier was briefly hospitalized recently, they said, but specifics were unclear. Cooksey, his mother, said doctors told her he was “dehydrated” and acting “hyper.”
“My son was happy. He’s not an angry child. He’s not a violent child,” she said. “He said, ‘Mom, things happen, not everything I can talk to you about,'” Cooksey said.
Person, the cousin, said the dispute between father and son started as a typical family squabble, and LeGrier may have been upset about holiday night plans or his father being too controlling. He said Quintonio LeGrier was a successful, driven student and that his father was paying for his education.
Person was not present during the shooting but said he saw LeGrier and the father earlier in the evening and spoke with the father about what happened when police arrived at the house on Erie Street.
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed.
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