Friends and relatives of two African-Americans fatally shot by police in Chicago issued an emotional plea for justice on Sunday, calling the incident the latest proof that the city’s officers are far too quick to use deadly force.
Family members held a press conference following Saturday’s police shootings of Bettie Jones, 55, a mother of five, and Quintonio LeGrier, a 19-year-old engineering student.
Both were shot and killed after police were called to a private residence in response to a call about a domestic dispute.
News reports said the teen struggled with mental health issues and had been threatening his father with a baseball bat.
A short time after arriving on the scene, police opened fire, striking LeGrier, who they said was charging down the stairs carrying the bat.
Jones, LeGrier’s downstairs neighbor, who opened the door for officers as they arrived, also was struck by a police bullet and died on Saturday at the hospital.
Separately, police fatally shot another man within hours of the other two shootings, news reports said, some of which said the man was armed, but had dropped his weapon and had his arms raised when police opened fire.
Many in this midwestern city — already reeling from other incidents in which police are said to have been too ready to pull the trigger on their service weapons — condemned the shooting.
“This needs to stop,” LeGrier’s mother Janet Cooksey told reporters on Sunday.
“No mother should have to bury her child, especially under these circumstances. The police are supposed to serve and protect us,” Cooksey said through tears. “Is it a badge to kill?”
She added, at the press conference attended by a couple of dozen people, that her son was “a good child” and an honor student.
“Seven times my son was shot, once in the buttocks — that showed he was turning away,” the grieving woman said.
Bettie Jones’ nephew, Jahmal Cole, in an interview with CNN, described her as a church-going grandmother and community pillar.
Cole said young college student Quintonio LeGrier “was trying to make a difference, and he was a role model — not only to the people in his community, but to his family.”
The Chicago police, he said, “used deadly force in a situation where it was not called for, and I think that there needs to be some swift justice.”
“Any time an officer uses force the public deserves answers, and regardless of the circumstances, we all grieve any time there is a loss of life in our city,” a statement released by the office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
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