Chicago Police: Woman accidentally killed by officer fire

Person questioned why police fired at the two, claiming they did so from across the front yard as his relative stood in the doorway. However, families for both victims are demanding answers, questioning whether the shooting was warranted.

Bettie Jones, a neighbor of LeGrier, lived in a first-floor apartment with her boyfriend.

LaTonya Jones, daughter of Bettie Jones, holds a picture of her mother at her home in Chicago.

Bettie Jones, an Action Now member, posed no threat to police officers.

They say they were confronted by, quote, “a combative subject, resulting in the discharging of the officer’s weapon”.

Chicago police said it “extends its deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends”.

“My son was happy”, LeGrier’s mother Janet Cooksey told reporters Sunday.

The killings occur amid national concerns about a series of African-American shooting deaths by police, events that have given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. He said his son tried to bust the door open, but he kept him from doing so and called police. “This afternoon I directed the new Acting Chief Administrator of the Independent Police Review Authority and the Interim Superintendent of Police to meet with each other as soon as possible to review the Crisis Intervention team training, around how officers respond to mental health calls”. The source also said investigators were looking into whether any officer had a Taser.

IPRA spokesman Larry Merritt said Sunday that he didn’t know if any dashcam or body cam footage of the incident exists.

Police said the shooting is under investigation and the case has been referred to the city’s main police oversight agency.

Officials have said the investigation will look into patterns of racial disparity in the use of force, as well as review how the department disciplines officers and handles misconduct accusations.

A recently released video of the shooting death of a black teenager by a white officer in 2014 has sparked protests, with activists calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation.

Family members and others at the news conference wore black T-shirts critical of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The woman, Bettie Jones, was one of two people killed by police in the shooting early Saturday. Exactly what happened next isn’t clear, but an undetermined number of shots fatally struck LeGrier and a nearby neighbor, 55-year-old Bettie Jones.

“This family is absolutely devastated”, the Rev. Marshall E. Hatch of a West Garfield Park church said, adding that the shooting showed how “deeply dysfunctional the relationship is between this department and its citizens”. “The police are supposed to serve and protect us”, Cooksey said through tears.

According to the LeGrier family, in comments to the local WLS television station, the young man had mental problems but he was not aggressive. Antonio LeGrier said when he returned to his second-floor apartment early Saturday, his son appeared to be a “little agitated”.

He said he heard loud banging on his locked bedroom door around 4:15am and that his son said: “You’re not going to scare me”.

“And for them to kill him and then disrespect him and say his behavior was that way – no, it was not”, she said.

LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, said Sunday that police shot her son seven times, once in buttocks.

Ms Jones, who lived a floor below, said she had seen Quintonio outside with a baseball bat. One of Jones’s five children, Latisha, was awakened by the noise and ran to her mother’s side as she lay unresponsive on the ground.

Both were black, the medical examiner’s office said.

Antonio LeGrier told the Sun-Times he heard a cop yell, “F-, no, no, no. I thought he was lunging at me with the bat”. LeGrier described him as a “whiz kid” and said he was home on break from Northern Illinois University, where he majored in electrical engineering technology.

The medical examiner’s office says autopsies have not been scheduled.

“Anytime an officer uses force the public deserves answers, and regardless of the circumstances, we all grieve anytime there is a loss of life in our city”, the statement read.

Melvin Jones, the brother of the woman killed Saturday, said his sister celebrated Christmas at her apartment Friday with about 15 other relatives. The father was with lawyers during the press conference, she said.