LOT OF QUESTIONS
As authorities try to piece together how bar security guard Jemel Roberson was fatally shot, a witness says ‘panicked’ suburban cop ‘never gave him a chance’
A woman who lives next door to a south suburban bar where a police officer shot and killed a security guard who was trying to subdue a gunman said Wednesday that the officer seemed “panicked” before he shot and didn’t give the guard enough time to respond to his commands.
“He yelled something, either, ‘get down’ or ‘get on the ground,’ and it was like before he got the last word out, he fired. He never gave him a chance,” said the woman, who said she had yet to be interviewed by police or other investigators about what she saw outside Manny’s Blue Room bar in Robbins early Sunday.
Jemel Roberson had been working security at Manny’s when a gunman opened fire inside the tavern, injuring four people, police said. Roberson had managed to subdue the shooter in a parking lot on the west side of the bar before police arrived at the scene; the gunman is now in custody. But a white police officer from neighboring Midlothian who responded to the scene saw Roberson, who was armed, and fatally shot him. Roberson, 26, was African-American.
The case has since attracted national attention.
The State Police, which is investigating the Midlothian officer’s use of force, said late Tuesday that a “preliminary investigation” revealed that Roberson was “in plain black clothing with no markings readily identifying him as a security guard” when he was shot. A state police spokesman did not respond to a request for an update on the investigation Wednesday.
But accounts from witnesses like the neighbor have led lawyers for Roberson’s family to push back on the version of the shooting offered in the report by State Police.
Greg Kulis, a lawyer representing Roberson’s mother in a lawsuit against the south suburb, said Roberson was actually wearing a hat with “security” stitched on it, and the Midlothian officer either didn’t hear or ignored the panicked shouts of other officers at the scene as he opened fire.
‘Your normal cover-up language’
The woman who lives next door, who asked not to be named, said she heard the shots Sunday night and came out on her porch overlooking the parking lot after it appeared to her that police had arrived and the danger had passed.
“I wouldn’t have been on my porch if I thought there was still something going on,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “It seemed to me like the situation had been pretty much rectified.”
From just a few yards away, the woman said she saw Roberson on top of the apparent gunman, then saw the white Midlothian officer burst out of a side door with a rifle raised. That’s when he yelled at Roberson to get down to the ground, she said, and quickly pulled the trigger.
After the first shot, other officers surrounding Roberson and the gunman — as well as other bystanders — shouted at the Midlothian officer to stop shooting, she said. He then fired another three or four rounds, the woman said. The woman said she saw police squads from the Robbins, Midlothian and Posen and the Cook County Sheriff’s police
‘Blue on blue,’ ‘friendly fire’ incident
“The Midlothian police Department is completely saddened by this tragic incident and we give our heartfelt condolences to Jemel, his family and his friends. There are no words that can be expressed as to the sorrow his family is dealing with,” the Police Chief Daniel Delaney said in a press release.
“We view this as the equivalent of a ‘blue on blue,’ friendly fire incident,” he said.
At a village board meeting Wednesday night, Midlothian Mayor Gary L’Heureux again offered “our deepest condolences and sympathies” to Roberson’s family, but preempted any discussion of the shooting, citing the pending lawsuit. He said the local force does not wear body cameras.
“There are no words to express our profound sadness and sorrow for the horrible tragedy that occurred early Sunday morning,” L’Heureux said.