QOTD: A grieving American

QOTD: A grieving American

by digby
"They'll say it was justified, and then 14 days later no one will even be talking about it anymore," Reynolds said. "Cuz by that time, it will have probably happened to someone else."

Heartbreaking.

This horror story is what he's talking about:

Bettie Jones, 55, was one of two people who died after being shot by police early Saturday morning. Around 4:25 a.m., officers were called to the two-flat apartment building in the 4700 block of West Erie Street, where they "were confronted by a combative subject resulting in the discharging of an officer's weapon," according to a statement released by police later Saturday morning. Police provided few other details about the incident.

It started, Jones' family said, when the building's landlord called the police saying his 19-year-old son, Quintonio LeGrier, was swinging a baseball bat in the building's upstairs apartment.

LeGrier, who was studying engineering at Northern Illinois University, had been struggling with mental illness, according to ABC7.

When the police arrived, family members said, the landlord called down to Jones, his downstairs tenant, to answer the door. Having just been asleep, Jones answered the door in her nightgown.

Though no one witnessed the shooting, multiple family members said they thought police shot through the door, striking Bettie Jones three times. As evidence, family members pointed to a bullet hole in the door. There were other bullet holes in the home, including one in the daughter's bedroom, behind the front door.

The officer then shot LeGrier five times, witnesses told DNAinfo Chicago. The circumstances of the shooting were unclear; the Tribune reported that according to LeGrier's family, he was shot while coming out the front door. Tribune reporters observed evidence markers placed on the sidewalk leading to the porch.

[...]

"She was the kind of person who would come home after a 16-hour shift and then ask you if you needed anything," Andrews said. "She was always trying to help, sharing whatever little food she had in her fridge. She was one of a kind like that."

Jones' other brother, James Reynolds, said he was furious with the way police had handled the 911 call.

"We're talking about a kid here with a baseball bat. How are you then justified in coming in here, raining down bullets like it's the wild west?" Reynolds said. "This is about discipline — when you go to a job, you've got to do the job right. They didn't, and now a life has been lost."

To the best of our knowledge the only guns in the vicinity were in the hands of police.

It's not hard to imagine a different scenario in which the potential victim of the baseball bat, the mother, didn't end up getting shot 3 times. I suppose the cops figure she was just collateral damage in the war against African Americans and the mentally ill.


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