FEDS PROBE LEGRIER SHOOTING
Sneed has learned the FBI has joined a probe into the deadly police shooting late last December of Quinton io Le Grier ,19, whose neighbor, Bettie Jones, 55, was accidentally killed in the same incident.
Translation: Just days after the incident, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez— who also called in the feds to assist in the probe of the Laquan McDonald police shooting— asked the FBI to assist in the LeGrier investigation, calling it a “deeply disturbing incident that demands a very deliberate and meticulous independent investigation.”
Backstory: LeGrier and Jones were shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo, 27, responding to a call for a domestic incident involving a bat-wielding teen at an apartment building at 4710W. Erie at 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 26. Jones, the mother of five, was accidentally shotwhile standing near the front door of the building.
Upshot: Sneed is told the feds are now taking an active role in the investigation, joining Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Backshot: LeGrier, a former engineering student who was struggling with mental health problems, called 911 three times, asking police to come to his father’s home, but did not give his specific address, according to emergency phone calls that were publicly released.
The dispatcher did not send an officer to the house until after LeGrier’s third call.
Officer Rialmo, a former U.S. Marine who had been in uniform for the past three years, has filed a lawsuit suing Quintonio LeGrier’s estate citing emotional distress; seeking in excess of $50,000 for physical and emotional trauma; and $10 million in punitive damages, according to his attorney, Joel Brodsky.
Buckshot: Alvarez, who faces a tough primary election March 15, has been blasted by her challengers for waiting a year to release the controversial dashcam video of the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old McDonald— and timing it with murder charges against the Chicago Po- lice officer who pumped 16 bullets into McDonald’s body.
Alvarez claimed the time delay was due to an active joint ongoing investigation at both the state and federal levels, which she felt demanded a highly complex touch.
A Trump bump?
Is Gov. Bruce Rauner anti-Trump? Well, do tell. If Rauner’s endorsement of state Rep. Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, RSpringfield, whom he appointed to fill state Rep. Raymond Poe’s 99th District seat last December— is any indication . . . he is not following Trump’s plan for Illinois.
Why? Attorney Kent Gray, who is running in the primary against Wojcicki— is head of Donald
Trump’s Illinois campaign.
Trump dump . . .
“Gonna vom!” said Miley Cyrus. Flipping the voter’s switch for the Trumpster almost sounds palatable after twerker Cyrus vowed to leave the country if The Donald gets elected. You go girl. Really.
Grab amatch!
Light the candles! The city of Chicago turns 179 years old Friday!
Grab a fork! Ald. Ed Burke (14th), who is fancied the city’s historian, will attend a cake-cutting ceremony at the Chicago History Museum. The city was incorporated on March 4, 1837. It became a town in 1833.
Where’s Rahm? He’s busy.
The pickle jar . . .
A late Valentine? Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st), who used to date City Clerk Susana Mendoza, wanted Sneed to know the reason her name wasn’t listed on his sample ballot of endorsements is because she is running unopposed on the Dem ticket in Chicago for the state comptroller’s office. ... Although he did list endorsements for two 1st Ward congressional candidates.
“I wanted to clarify that I am 110% behind Susana Mendoza. ... Susana and [I] are great friends and allies and I truly believe that she will have no problem winning this election in a landslide against her Republican opponent.”
Sneedlings . . .
Today’s birthdays: Chaz Bono, 47, Rick Perry, 66, and Fred Lebed, 62.