Chicago Amtrak officer charged with murder
Minn. man shot, killed during run-in while waiting for bus
An Amtrak police officer has been charged with firstdegree murder in connection with the fatal killing of a Minneapolis man who apparently had gone into a Chicago train station to get warm during a stopover on a bus trip.
Amtrak officer Laroyce Tankson, 31, who had been on administrative leave since the Feb. 8 shooting, turned himself in late Thursday after a warrant was issued, police said.
The victim, Chad Robertson, died in a hospital Wednesday. The construction worker was in Chicago on a brief stopover while traveling by bus from Memphis to Minneapolis. In a court filing, Cook county prosecutors said the shooting occurred after a bus driver dropped off Robertson and two friends at Union Station to stay warm while awaiting their onward bus.
At one point, prosecutors said, the three went outside to smoke marijuana on the sidewalk and were confronted by Tankson and a fellow Amtrak officer, who told them to put out the cigarettes. The officer warned the three not to smoke marijuana in public and let them go. Later, after leaving a nearby restaurant, the three came back to the station to retrieve luggage and were confronted by the two Amtrak officers.
Although the officers did not suspect the three of any criminal offense other than possession of cannabis, prosecutors said, they detained them. As the officers began to pat them down, Robertson bolted. Prosecutors said four people saw the incident and that “none saw Robertson with a weapon nor did they see him gesture or turn toward the officers.”
As Robertson fled, prosecutors said, Tankson crouched and fired his pistol, hitting the victim once. Prosecutors said “no weapon of any kind was recovered from Robertson or in the vicinity.”