White MAN Police KILLS BLACK SECURITY GUARD OFFICER for no VALID REASON
November 2, 2021
It began in a way gun advocates have suggested would curtail
violence. A gun comes out. Shots are fired. A “good guy with a gun”
steps in to help before police can respond.
The tidy theoretical doesn’t account for the chaotic unknowns when
police arrive and can’t tell a “good guy” with a gun from a “bad guy”
with a gun.
The theory turned to grim reality at Manny’s Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Ill., outside Chicago early Sunday.
Police shot and killed the good guy. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working security.
“Everybody was screaming out, ‘He was a security guard,’ and they
basically saw a black man with a gun and killed him,” witness Adam
Harris told WGN.
The incident may become a touchstone in a persistent debate about how
places such as schools, nightclubs and houses of worship should steel
themselves against gunmen.
That debate has gained urgency during the past year, as President
Trump and others have repeatedly said security guards — specifically
armed ones — could have prevented the nation’s mass shootings; earlier
this year, Trump tweeted his support for the controversial idea of
arming teachers.
And the Sunday incident has already provoked concerns that black men,
even when legally carrying firearms or employed in a position that
allows their use, can still become a target for police fire.
Roberson’s friends said he had talked all his life of becoming a police officer himself.
“Now you have to question the police and what they’re actually
doing,” 21-year-old Christian Torres said. “This is someone who was on
their side.”
Roberson had a valid gun owner’s license but did not have a
concealed-carry permit, WGN reported. In Minnesota in 2016, Philando
Castile was killed by an officer during a traffic stop seconds after he
told an officer there was a weapon in the car.
Details about the Illinois shooting were unclear Monday. Midlothian
Police Chief Daniel Delaney said in a statement that officers from his
department and the Robbins Police Department responding to a shooting
found multiple victims inside the bar.
The statement said the “Midlothian officer encountered a subject with a gun” and shot him.
Delaney did not elaborate on what occurred before the police response.
The incident began with a confrontation involving several men, and a
man left to retrieve a gun. He returned to the bar and opened fire,
striking several people, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing remarks
from Robbins Police Chief Roy Wells. At least four others were injured.
Roberson returned fire and apprehended one suspect, the Tribune
reported, as officers from suburban police departments responded.
It is unclear how the killing unfolded from there — how and whether
officers identified themselves, whether Roberson was holding a gun, or
how much time passed before the officer fired at Roberson, who was
pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Robbins Police Department,
neither of which responded to requests for comment, are investigating
the shooting that first drew the police to the scene, Delaney said.
Illinois State Police will investigate Roberson’s killing by the
Midlothian officer. Delaney did not answer a question about the
administrative status of the officer.
Roberson is one of at least 840 people who have been shot and killed
by police so far in 2018 and one of at least 19 in Illinois, according
to a Washington Post database.
souce:washingtonpost