Shooting of guard sparks controversy

A suburban Chicago alderman called Tuesday for prosecutors to investigate the fatal shooting of a black security guard by a white police officer outside the bar where the guard worked.

Authorities have said little about the scene that ended early Sunday with the death of 26-year-old Jemel Roberson, who was apparently wearing a hat emblazoned with “security” across the front when he was shot outside Manny’s Blue Room in Robbins, a predominantly black community just south of Chicago.

At the time, according to witnesses and a lawsuit, Roberson was attempting to detain a suspect in a separate shooting that wounded several other people at the tavern.

“Here is a security guard who is subduing a suspect,” but the officer “just sees a black man with a gun and kills him,” Alderman Keith Price said.

Price said he learned from witnesses that there are security cameras inside and outside the bar. He urged the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to launch an investigation.

The Illinois State Police declined to comment on their investigation. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, which is also investigating, said she did not know if there were This photo provided by Avontea Boose shows her baby, Tristan Roberson, and the boy’s father, Jemel Roberson. A police officer fatally shot Jemel Roberson, an armed security guard, outside the suburban Chicago bar where he worked.

security cameras.

Another security guard at the tavern said the officer jumped onto the bar and waved an assault rifle before running outside and fatally shooting the guard, an attorney said Tuesday.

Gregory E. Kulis, who on Monday filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officer and the community where he works, said the surviving guard told him that the officer pointed a gun at him until he screamed at him that he was a security guard.

“That’s when he jumped off the bar, waving the gun, and ran outside the door,” said Kulis, who declined to identify the other security guard. The name of the officer, who is from the community of Midlothian, has not been released either.

The officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard in such shootings until the investigation is complete, Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said.

Kulis would not say if he thinks race played a role in the shooting, but some — including a prominent local African-American newspaper columnist — questioned the officer’s thinking.

“I believe a police officer showing up at a chaotic scene where a white man has a gun would have at least hollered for him to put the gun down before opening fire,” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell wrote. “But too often, black men are not given the benefit of the doubt.”