Chicago Police Fatally Shoot 2, Including Mentally Ill College Student
Chicago police shot and killed two people Saturday morning, including a teenage boy and a neighbor who may have been caught in crossfire, according to early reports.
According to Chicago’s local WLS-TV, police responded to a call round 4:30 a.m. The caller, the father of 19-year-old Quintonio Legrier, said that his son was waving a baseball bat and “acting crazy.”
Shortly after police arrived, Legrier was shot and later died in the hospital. Details about the shooting have yet to be released. Legrier’s mother, Janet Cookery, said that her son was studying engineering in college and suffered from a mental illness.
“I went to the hospital, my son had seven bullet holes in him,” she told ABC 7 News. “That’s too much.”
The second victim was a 56-year-old woman, the downstairs neighbor of Legrier, Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy confirmed at a press conference. He did not say whether the woman was involved in an altercation with Legrier. Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the case.
The shooting is far from the first of its kind in the recent history of the Chicago police. After the death of black teenager Laquan McDonald, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into whether the department has breached civil rights in its recent conduct. Besides that, the department is facing a slew of allegations over other recent incidents as well.
