Cop Who Killed Teen and Neighbor Suing For Emotional Distres

[orangeblossom]

No words, well none that are nice anyway.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/02/07/after-killing-college-student-and-55-year-old-mother-cop-sues-for-extreme-emotional-trauma/


A Chicago police officer who fatally shot a college student and his 55-year-old neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the teenager’s estate that blames the mentally ill 19-year-old for causing the officer “extreme emotional trauma.”



Officer Robert Rialmo’s lawsuit was filed Friday and offers the first public account of the moments before Rialmo shot and killed Quintonio LeGrier on Dec. 26. The suit claims that Rialmo, who was arriving at the scene of a domestic disturbance with another officer, opened fire after the teenager twice swung a bat at the officer’s head and then raised the weapon a third time, leading Rialmo to fear that his life was in danger, according to the Chicago Tribune.



The round that killed LeGrier also killed 55-year-old Bettie Jones, a downstairs neighbor and mother of five who was standing near LeGrier and was not part of the disturbance that had drawn police to the residence. In an apologetic statement the next day, police confirmed that her death was accidental.



Rialmo is seeking $10 million in damages, according to the Associated Press.



“The fact that LeGrier’s actions had forced Officer Rialmo to end LeGrier’s life and to accidentally take the innocent life of Bettie Jones has caused, and will continue to cause, Officer Rialmo to suffer extreme emotional trauma,” the filing says.



[The Chicago shootings and why so many police calls involving the mentally ill end in death]



The suit comes at a time when public officials are grappling with questions about how the Chicago Police Department can earn back public trust, which has been eroded by a series of shootings and other incidents involving police misconduct.



The Justice Department has opened a wide-ranging investigation into whether the department’s practices contribute to civil rights violations. The investigation was launched after the release of video in November showing white officer Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was black. The footage led to murder charges for Van Dyke and the resignation of the city’s police chief.



Rialmo’s account differs sharply in key ways from claims made by LeGrier’s father, Antonio LeGrier, who has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court. That suit — which called the shooting “excessive and unreasonable — claims the teenager “never had possession or control of a weapon” and “never posed a danger of threat or harm,” according to the Tribune.



The suit claims that Rialmo was outside the two-story building when he fired his weapon but that the teenager was inside, the paper reported. LeGrier’s suit also states that while his son lay on the ground bleeding to death, Rialmo “did not do anything to try to provide [him] medical care.”





Antonio LeGrier’s attorney, Basileios Foutris, told the AP that Rialmo’s highly unusual suit — which is a countersuit in the LeGrier case — is “outlandish.”



“After this coward shot a teenager in the back … he has the temerity to sue him?” he said. “That’s a new low for the Chicago Police Department.”



Rialmo’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, told the Tribune that his client is going through a grieving process and that the lawsuit is an opportunity to tell the officer’s side of the story. He said the presumption is that his client is at fault for the shooting.



“He’s got this extra added burden [with] the death of Jones,” Brodsky said. “He’s going through what I would call the normal grieving process for someone who is forced to take a human life.”



The suit states that Rialmo arrived at LeGrier’s residence around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 26, according to the AP. After ringing the doorbell and being let in by Jones, the suit claims the officer stepped through the doorway and heard someone “charging down the stairway,” according to the AP.



The suit states that LeGrier “cocked” the bat and that when he was downstairs he “took a full swing” at the officer, according to the Tribune. The suit states that the bat missed Rialmo’s head by inches but was “close enough for Officer Rialmo to feel the movement of air as the bat passed in front of his face,” the Tribune said.



The suit adds that the officer backed away from LeGrier and repeatedly commanded the teen to drop the bat, but that he continued to move forward and swung the bat again, according to the AP. After backing down the steps, the officer finally pulled out his 9mm handgun and fired, according to the suit, when LeGrier raised his bat again from three or four feet away.



“Rialmo reasonably believed that if he did not use deadly force against LeGrier, that LeGrier would kill him,” the suit states, according to the Tribune. “Officer Rialmo drew his handgun from its holster, and starting to fire from holster level, fired eight rounds at LeGrier from his 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun, which holds 18 rounds, in approximately two and a half seconds.”





The suit adds that the “fourth round that Officer Rialmo fired passed through LeGrier and struck Bettie Jones, who unbeknownst to Officer Rialmo, was standing in the front doorway to the building … behind LeGrier and partially exposed to any gunfire that might pass through LeGrier.”



An autopsy determined that LeGrier suffered six bullet wounds, according to the AP. Jones was killed by a single gunshot wound to her chest, according to the Tribune.



Lawyers for Antonio LeGrier and for Jones argue that evidence shows Rialmo was as far as 20 or 30 feet away when he fired his weapon, according to the AP.



Foutris told the AP that he’s skeptical about the idea that LeGrier would attack police, considering he’s the one who had called them to the residence in the first place.



“If you’re calling multiple times for help, are you going to charge a police officer and try to hit him with a bat?” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

[NewOrleans]

I've been meaning to post this for a week! Also, another new update in this absurd case:



Quintonio LeGrier, the 19-year-old who was fatally shot by Chicago police on the morning after Christmas, had called 911 three times pleading for help, but the dispatcher hung up on him, according to new records released this week.

LeGrier was shot six times by police in the stairwell of his father’s West Side apartment building when officers entered the premises in the early hours of December 26. A neighbor, Bettie Jones, a 55-year-old mother of five, was also shot and killed by police during the incident.

Prior to the release of new 911 recordings on Monday, the public only knew about two of the emergency phone calls—one from Quintonio LeGrier and one from his father, Antonio LeGrier. But the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, said that the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) recently provided the recordings of two more calls.

Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week

“I need an officer over here, OK?” the teenager said to the dispatcher in his first call, placed at 4:18 a.m.

“No, it don’t work like that,” she responded. “What is your emergency?”

After Quintonio pleaded multiple times that there was an emergency, the dispatcher responded: “If you can’t answer the questions, I am going to hang up,” which she then did.

Melissa Stratton, an OEMC spokeswoman, told the Chicago Tribune that disciplinary proceedings have already begun for that 911 operator for failing to follow proper protocol. Once Quintonio said that his life had been threatened, the dispatcher should have sent police, Stratton said.

Quintonio called 911 again at 4:20 a.m., asking repeatedly for the dispatcher to send police to the building. He called again at 4:21 a.m, saying that he needed an officer because someone was threatening his life. In both calls, the teenager is audibly frustrated.

The dispatcher who answered his third call sent a squad car for a well-being check. While officers were responding, Antonio LeGrier made his 911 call. Clearly out of breath, he said that his son was armed with a bat and trying to "break inside [his] bedroom door."

Quintonio allegedly swung a baseball bat at Officer Robert Rialmo, who then shot him six times. Jones, a neighbor, was fatally shot once in the chest by Rialmo. Police later said Jones’s death was “accidental.”

Quintonio was a sophomore studying electrical engineering at Northern Illinois University. His mother described him as an honor student, and said he was home visiting family during his holiday break. School police records indicate that he was acting erratically in the months leading up to the shooting.

There had already been a public outcry in Chicago on November 24, after video footage was released of a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times on October 20, 2014, ultimately killing him. The video exposed a long-brewing problem in the city, not just of police misconduct, but a culture of covering up the problem and failing to hold officers accountable.

[secretlyevil]

Words are failing me.

[curbsideprophet]

I don't know what to say

[turboteal]

FUCK this guy! Also, he was "forced to take a human life" No, asshole, there is always a choice. You made the decision to shoot him 6 times. You made the decision to even become a police officer*. That is all on you.


*ETA: not suggesting all police kill people, just that's it's one of the few professions where killing someone with a gun is even a possibility, and he chose it.

[sparrowsong]

Taking the "war on cops" to a new level. He's the victim here. Right, ok.

[josieposy]

The suit comes at a time when public officials are grappling with questions about how the Chicago Police Department can earn back public trust, which has been eroded by a series of shootings and other incidents involving police misconduct.

Well this certainly won't help

[elleblue]

Ugh.

[turboteal]

Feb 7, 2016 17:20:44 GMT -5 Dig Ophelia said:

Feb 7, 2016 17:10:24 GMT -5 turboteal said:

FUCK this guy!

Not just this guy but the 911 dispatchers who hung up on the kid in the first place.

There are tons of legitimate reasons why someone might be unable to verbalize exactly why they were calling 911 for help.  Being snarky with someone and hanging up on them is reprehensible.  

This entire story is fucked up and sad.  

Agreed. That was my reaction to the first article, but the second is also terrible. Very upsetting to see the lack of empathy and flippancy from someone who is supposed to be sending help.

[thejackpot]

Ugh. My heart hurts.

[isabel]

I am not a violent person, but there is no doubt in my mind that I would sucker punch that cop and the 911 operator if they were standing in front of me. Fuck. Just... I really hate people.

[AAM2012]

Not trying to say the lawsuit is right or wrong but my guess it's a defense tactic for the lawsuit that was filed against him by the family/estate.

[bimbi284]

Jesus fucking christ. NO.

[WOT?*]

I want to be on this jury.
"Normal process of grieving" my ass. I get the court system. I get that he wants to get his story out. This, in this time and place, is NOT how you go about it. You're not looking remorseful here, officer, and you're giving yourself and the CPD another *huge* black eye.

ETA: I agree with what you're saying AAM2012 . Countersuits are fairly common practice, but in this case it just leaves a really bad taste. He's a police officer who pulled a gun in an escalated situation, in a department already notorious for its practices.

[ijack]

JFC

[Deleted]

Feb 7, 2016 16:42:00 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

Words are failing me.

Yes. This.

Please, God, don't let the affluenza judge anywhere near this?

[Cicero]

I can't imagine that this kid had $10M in assets and you can't get blood from a stone. Does this guy think his estate has a valid wrongful death claim?

[mrsukyankee]

Unbelievable!

[cinnamoncox0]

Feb 7, 2016 22:17:59 GMT -5 Dig Ophelia said:

Feb 7, 2016 21:27:59 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

This story goes into less detail than some others I read.  He told the 911 dispatcher "My dad is ruining my life!" and that's why he called 911.  So yeah, it sounded like a case of someone who calls 911 when McDonalds gets their order wrong and (especially in Chicago) I can see why you'd hang up to take another call.

Even so, if the third dispatcher was able to put out a wellness check, then the first dispatcher or the second dispatcher could have done the same.  A young, distressed man talking about being afraid of/angry at his father could have been a domestic issue or a mental health issue or anything else, so why risk it by being an ass?  Having to call 911 three times could very well have helped escalate the situation and the kid's distress. 

This isn't the first time I've heard of 911 dispatchers hanging up on people or berating them because the caller didn't do/say exactly what that particular dispatcher wanted.  

Yeah, I would imagine this totally escalated things and his mental distress. Calling the police *usually* results in help/assistance not getting hung up on.
Everyone failed this poor kid.
And extra fuck this asshole cop. Who "forced" him to take two human lives?
I'll wait.

[wawa]

Feb 7, 2016 22:17:59 GMT -5 Dig Ophelia said:

Feb 7, 2016 21:27:59 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

This story goes into less detail than some others I read.  He told the 911 dispatcher "My dad is ruining my life!" and that's why he called 911.  So yeah, it sounded like a case of someone who calls 911 when McDonalds gets their order wrong and (especially in Chicago) I can see why you'd hang up to take another call.

Even so, if the third dispatcher was able to put out a wellness check, then the first dispatcher or the second dispatcher could have done the same.  A young, distressed man talking about being afraid of/angry at his father could have been a domestic issue or a mental health issue or anything else, so why risk it by being an ass?  Having to call 911 three times could very well have helped escalate the situation and the kid's distress. 

This isn't the first time I've heard of 911 dispatchers hanging up on people or berating them because the caller didn't do/say exactly what that particular dispatcher wanted.  

I've had the weird misfortune to be the immediate witness to a number of car crashes and one domestic violence so I've called 911 several times. The dispatcher has been a snippy asshole at least half the time.

I always end up thinking that I can't imagine calling when I'm the one in distress and getting that attitude.

[fumbalina]

I've also had to call 911 several times (as a representative of a mid size retail business) and had issues with dispatchers response.

The lack of understanding of the address was the most frustrating. I would give the street address, followed by the intersection we were located on and finally directions from the nearest interstate and still have the dispatcher asking for more details.

On the other hand when people accidentally called 911, the dispatcher was polite and calm. It happened fairly often due to the dial out code for the phone.

[downtoearth]

I am pissed that this officer can counter sue for emotional distress for doing his damn job terribly! I mean, I could see if he was suing the Chicago Police for this b/c they didn't fucking give the officer the right understanding and tools for the job, but not the kid that needed help and was upset!!!!