Fatal Shooting By Federal Agent Justified, State's Attorney Finds

WAUKEGAN, IL — A federal agent was justified in the fatal shooting of a Waukegan teenager earlier this year in Zion, according to the Lake County State's Attorney's Office, citing the results of an investigation by Illinois State Police. In the early morning hours of March 29, a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General was assisting three other agents in the 3000 block of Ezekiel Avenue with a surveillance operations. The HUD agents were looking for a woman who was wanted on an arrest warrant issued in connection with the "repeated rape of a child," according to State's Attorney Mike Nerheim.

The agent was in an unmarked car wearing a vest with "Police" written across the front as she waited outside the wanted woman's home on 30th Street east of an alley, while her partners were in other cars in the area, according to Nerheim's summary of her statement.

Around 6 a.m., the agent heard a knock on her driver's side window. At first she thought it might be one of her partners, but it turned out to be 19-year-old Dishon McBride, who was wearing a bandanna over his face and knocking on the window with the front of a semi-automatic handgun after crawling along the ground beside the unmarked HUD vehicle, according to Nerheim.

The gun was pointed at the agent's head and McBride said something to her, but she was unable to make out what was said. The agent saw another person approach her car from the back, according to the state's attorney, and with the barrel of McBride's gun inches from her head, she pulled out her weapon, aimed it directly at McBride with two hands and fired a single shot, which struck the teen in his neck.

Investigators later learned McBride's weapon, a silver pistol with a wooden-colored grip, was a replica of a semi-automatic handgun, authorities said. Arriving Zion police officers and EMTs tried to provide aid to McBride, but he was pronounced dead at the scene and the coroner was called to the scene around 8:30 a.m.

A deputy from the Lake County Sheriff's Office arrived with a police dog to help track several people who had been seen with McBride at the time of the shooting. According to Nerheim, a home video showed three people run south from the scene of the shooting and into an alleyway. However, because people had been walking their dogs in the area and bystanders had been in the alley, the canine was unable to pick up a scent.

During the surveillance, the agents were communicating by radio but none of the traffic was recorded, according to Nerheim. None of the agents were wearing cameras and none of their vehicles were equipped to record video. Agents from HUD's inspector general's office, which investigates allegations of fraud and corruption, are reportedly the only agents in the department to carry firearms. Portions of the case file will be posted on the Lake County State's Attorney's Office website.

"Based upon the facts gathered in this investigation and a review of the applicable Illinois Statutes," Nerheim said, the agent "acted reasonably and appropriately." He said the agent "acted in an entirely professional manner. She only fired her weapon when she believed that her life was in danger." He commended the agent's professionalism during the investigation and expressed his condolences to McBride's family.

Earlier: HUD Agent Fatally Shoots Armed Waukegan Teen In Zion: Police »