Shooting Of Quintonio LeGrier, Bettie Jones Unjustified: COPA

CHICAGO, IL — The Civilian Office of Accountability ruled Thursday that a Chicago police officer unjustifiably shot 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones in 2015. Officer Robert Rialmo was called to a home in West Garfield Park on Dec. 26, when LeGrier walked outside of the home with a baseball bat, police said. Rialmo killed LeGrier, and the officer's gunfire also struck and killed Jones, a grandmother and mother of five.

COPA said that Rialmo should not have believed he was in danger of being seriously injured or killed. The watchdog group also said evidence indicated that LeGrier didn't swing the bat at Rialmo, and that the teen was farther away from the officer than he claimed.

LeGrier was an engineering student at Northern Illinois University who was suffering from mental illness. Police said he was threatening his father with a metal bat when officers were called to the home. LeGrier's father asked Jones, who lived in the downstairs flat, to open the door when officers arrived.

Police said Rialmo fired at LeGrier when he started swinging a baseball bat. The 19-year-old and Jones were both killed. Jones was shot three times, once in the neck. Police acknowledged she was shot accidentally.

"We find a reasonable officer in Officer Rialmo's position would not have believed he was in imminent harm of death or great bodily harm at the time Officer Rialmo began firing his weapon," investigators stated.

The Jones and LeGrier families filed wrongful death civil lawsuits against the City of Chicago in January of 2016. Rialmo filed a a $10 million counterclaim in February of 2016, claiming he opened fired because LeGrier was coming at him with a bat and that he did not see Jones.

The Chicago Police Department now has 90 days to conduct a formal review of the case.

Photo: Quintonio Le Grier, provided.