A white Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed a neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the teenager’s estate, arguing the shooting left him traumatized.
The highly unusual suit was filed on Friday in the middle of the city’s effort to grapple with serious questions about the future of its police force. Those questions include the adequacy of its system for investigating police shootings and how to win back public trust after several cases of alleged misconduct.
The US Department of Justice is conducting a wide-ranging civil rights investigation, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has promised a major overhaul of the police department and steps to heal its fraught relationship with black residents.
The timing and unusual nature of the suit by officer Robert Rialmo, who is seeking US$10 million in damages, could complicate the department’s efforts to demonstrate more sensitivity toward the community in how police shootings are handled.
His attorney, Joel Brodsky, said that it was important in the charged atmosphere to send a message that police are “not targets for assaults” and “suffer damage like anybody else.”
The teen’s father, Antonio LeGrier, filed a wrongful death lawsuit days after the Dec. 26 shooting, saying his son, Quintonio, was not armed with a weapon and was not a threat.
His attorney, Basileios Foutris, was incredulous at what he called the officer’s “temerity” in suing the grieving family of the person he shot.
“That’s a new low even for the Chicago Police Department,” he said. “First you shoot them, then you sue them.”
The lawsuit provides the officer’s first public account of how he says the shooting happened, offering details that differ with the family’s version. It says Rialmo, who was responding to a domestic disturbance call with another officer, opened fire after Quintonio LeGrier swung a bat at the officer’s head at close range. A downstairs neighbor, 55-year-old Bettie Jones, was standing nearby and was shot and killed by accident. She was not part of the domestic dispute.
The officer’s suit describes the teen coming down the stairs with a baseball bat in hand and says LeGrier “cocked” the bat “and took a full swing at Officer Rialmo’s head, missing it by inches” when the two were about 1.2m apart.
Rialmo then backed away with his weapon still holstered, while repeatedly shouting at LeGrier to drop the bat, the suit says.
The suit says LeGrier kept advancing and swung the bat again. Only when LeGrier cocked the bat again from 1.2m away, did the officer pull out his 9 mm handgun and open fire, the filing says.
As he began firing, Rialmo did not see or hear Jones behind LeGrier, the suit says. It says one of the bullets went through LeGrier’s body and struck Jones, killing her.
Lawyers for Antonio LeGrier and for Jones say the evidence indicates the officer was 6m to 9m away when he fired, calling into question Rialmo’s contention that he feared for his life.
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