Chicago police officer fatally shoots college student, mother of five

The Chicago Police Department said in a statement that the shootings happened around 4:25 a.m. Saturday after officers who responded to the call “were confronted by a combative subject”. It is not clear whether Jones had even finished opening up the door for them when officers fired at Legrier who was charging down the stairs still carrying the bat. Police did not disclose the officer’s name or race.

Van Dyke faces six counts of first-degree murder and one charge of official misconduct.

The shooting came two days after protests against Chicago police officers’ actions – including the killing of black teenager Laquan McDonald – shut down parts of the Magnificent Mile, a high-end shopping district in the city. “The 19-year-old son is banging on his bedroom door with a baseball bat”.

Neighbors said Jones was shot in the neck soon after she opened the door for police. In this NBC Chicago segment, a tearful young woman identified as Jones’ daughter says her mother was shot dead when she opened her door. “Sometimes he will get loud, but not violent”, Cookery told WLS-TV in Chicago.

LeGrier’s father told the downstairs neighbor not to engage with LeGrier, and to keep an eye out for police. There wasn’t time to panic or react, she said.

The officer then shot LeGrier five times, witnesses told DNAinfo Chicago.

Legrier was admitted in 2014 to Northern Illinois University, where he majored in electrical engineering technology, according to the university’s website.

He had graduated previous year from Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy with a grade-point average above 3.0 and was listed as part of a team of students who ran the 2013 Chicago Marathon to raise money for clean drinking water for African children. The Chicago Tribune reported that the person was taken to the hospital in serious to critical condition.

Shootings that resulted in two deaths have took place in the western part of the city early Saturday morning, according to local enforcement that appeared at the scene after a report of possible domestic violence.

Autopsies have not yet been scheduled, a medical examiner’s office spokesperson said.

Independent Police Review Authority spokesman Larry Merritt confirmed Saturday that the agency was investigating but had no further information.

Last week, the Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation of the Chicago Police Department in connection with that shooting and how the investigation of it was handled.

That case contributed to Garry McCarthy losing his job as Chicago’s police superintendent and spurred calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. “I thought that we were supposed to get service and protection”. Cooksey said. “I mean, whose gonna answer these questions?”