Autopsy results give details on police shootings

In early December, the state’s attorney’s office elected to not charge a police officer who fatally shot Ronald Johnson as he ran away from police carrying a gun.

Separately, Chicago police responded elsewhere to an “assault in progress”, faced an armed man and shot him.

“If you’re afraid of these streets to the point where you got to shoot first, you need to turn your badge in”, said Betty Turner, LeGrier’s great aunt.

“One of Jones’ family members said Jones had just celebrated Christmas Friday “with food and card games” with about 15 relatives at her apartment”.

But on Sunday the scene was completely different as many people kept vigil for her. The 55-year-old activists and her 19-year-old neighbour Quintonio LeGrier were killed on Saturday morning by police. A stead stream of ministers and elected officials, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, came to the neighborhood to offer their condolences to the victims’ families.

The shootings mark the first time police have fatally shot someone in Chicago since before the release of the video of a cop fatally shooting Laquan McDonald brought new scrutiny down on police use of force. She said it will focus in particular on use of force and deadly force, including racial, ethnic and other disparities in use of force, and its systems of accountability. “They were denied that opportunity”, he said.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office on Sunday also listed the manner of both deaths as homicides. Police did not immediately disclose the race of the officer, saying in a statement only that officers involved in the incident will be placed on administrative duties for 30 days while “training and fitness for duty requirements can be conducted”. Only a relatively small number of Chicago’s 12,000 officers have body cameras, and there’s been no indication that any officers responding Saturday were wearing the devices.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is calling on the Chicago Police Department and the main police oversight agency to review crisis intervention training in the wake of a double fatal police shooting. Person said the son’s refusal to go caused friction, but didn’t lead to a serious argument.

Antonio LeGrier tells the Chicago Sun-Times when he returned to his apartment early Saturday, his son Quintonio LeGrier appeared to be a “little agitated”. LeGrier was holding a baseball bat but was not an immediate threat to officers, he said.

“Police are supposed to serve us and protect us, and instead they kill us”, LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, told reporters. A Chicago police officer shot and killed Jones and a man while responding to a domestic disturbance call in the neighborhood on the city’s West Side, police said.

The mayor said in a statement that he directed the new acting chief administrator of IPRA and the interim police superintendent to meet as soon as possible.

When police arrived, LeGrier says he started making his way down from the second floor and heard gunshots.

Antonio LeGrier described his son as a “whiz kid” who struggled emotionally after going into foster care at age 4 and spending most of his childhood there, the Sun-Times reported. LeGrier was home on break from Northern Illinois University, where he was majoring in electrical engineering technology, according to the AP.

Cooksey denied that her son exhibited “combative behavior”. “He might’ve been angry with his father and they might’ve got into it…But he never had combative behavior”. She said “one or two” shots would have brought him down. “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”.

A police spokesman has declined to comment on the circumstances of the shooting beyond the brief original statement.

James, who lived on the block where he was shot, was pronounced dead at 4:17 p.m. An autopsy is slated for Monday, according to the office.

The shooting is being investigated by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority.

Jones and 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier died in the shooting. Family members wore shirts critical of the mayor emblazoned with the words “Rahm Failed Us”.