Truth is Discoverable.*

Although the Mayor returned to his city this week, official details are still slow in coming from Chicago authorities regarding the killing of a middle-aged female tenant at a home on the West Side where police were called about an out-of-control young man.

The police officer's name has not yet been released in the killing last Saturday of 55-year-old Bettie Jones, the mother of five who had celebrated Christmas with her family in the home only hours before her murder.

The officer is reported by CBS-News Chicago to be a former Marine, in his 20s.

The officer’s name is not being released at this time by Chicago Police or the Independent Police Review Authority, but sources tell CBS 2’s Mai Martinez he has been with the Chicago Police Department for a little more than three years. He currently works in the 11th District and he’s assigned to the midnight shift. The officer is in his 20s and is a former Marine.

He entered the academy in October of 2012 and graduated six months later in March of 2013. Under CPD policy at the time he would’ve been a probationary police officer for 18-months, so that means at the time of Saturday’s shooting, he had only been off probationary status and been a full-fledged officer for a little more than a year.

Neighbors report the officer went up the steps to the porch, rang the doorbell, returned to the sidewalk, and began shooting when Ms. Jones opened the door and said, "Whoa. Whoa.  Whoa," according to eyewitness reports in the media.

Two neighbors who live next door to Legrier's house say the officer shot from the sidewalk in front of the home.

Marcos Mercado lives in the house directly to the left of where the shooting occurred. From his living room window, he saw an officer standing on the sidewalk with his gun drawn and then heard gunfire, he told me during an interview at his kitchen table. Marcos did not see the officer pull the trigger, but after shots rang out he saw the officer standing in the same spot still pointing his gun at the house.

Mercado also said he saw another officer with a flashlight "check" in the passageway between Legrier's home and the house to the right of it.

Mercado said he heard one officer yell for someone to come out of Legrier's house. When asked how many minutes passed between when the officers arrived and when the shooting began, Mercado said officers began shooting "right away." He heard shots in rapid succession, he said.

He said he spoke to detectives from the city's Independent Police Review Authority for 10 minutes the day after the shooting.

The Chicago Triubne reported earlier this week that last Saturday, police allegedly seized the security camera footage from a house under construction across the street from the house where the killings occurred.

A Mother Jones reporter this week interviewed neighbors who reported watching the shooting:

I spoke to another neighbor, who lives in the house directly to the right of where the shooting occurred and would only give his first name, DeSean. From his window he saw an officer shoot into the doorway from the sidewalk, he told me.

One officer walked to the front of the house from the back, using a passageway that runs between DeSean's house and Legrier's house. Another officer got out of a squad car that was parked in the street, DeSean said. One of the officers walked up the stairs and knocked. Then he ran back to the sidewalk and drew his gun "like he was in position to shoot," DeSean said.

The officer didn't say anything when he knocked on the door, DeSean said. Jones opened the door a few minutes later, he recalled.

"When [Jones] opened that door she was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!'" DeSean said. "Like, 'Slow down—wait, wait, wait!' That's what she meant." He said there had been 15 or 20 seconds between when Jones opened the door and when the officer opened fire.
 
DeSean and William, another neighborhood resident who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, told me the porch was brightly lit, so the officer should have been able to see a woman in the doorway. William said, "There's nothing dark about it. You can see clearly." ...

After the shooting, several neighbors came outside. When DeSean looked into Legrier's house, he says he saw Quintonio laying on top of Jones' body in the hallway. Two ambulances arrived after five or six minutes, DeSean said and brought Quintonio and Jones out.

An unnamed source told the Chicago Tribune that the officer told investigators he did not see Ms. Jones until after she was shot, allegedly in the chest.

The Chicago police officer who last weekend shot a 19-year-old man and a 55-year-old mother of five told investigators he didn't see the woman until after she'd been accidentally shot, according to a law enforcement source.

The officer, who the source said has been on the force for nearly five years, told authorities that as he and his partner arrived early Saturday at a West Garfield Park home, Quintonio LeGrier ran out of the building, swinging a bat at the officers.

The officer fired at the teen several times, fatally striking him. But the officer also fatally shot in the chest Bettie Jones, a downstairs neighbor who the law enforcement source said was standing in the doorway behind the teen. The officer later said he didn't see her.

Chicago police had little to say publicly about how the incident unfolded, while relatives of the victims have given various accounts of what they believe occurred. The law enforcement source spoke on condition of anonymity as the case goes to the Independent Police Review Authority for an investigation expected to take months.

More reporting on the dead 19-year-old, whose father has filed a civl lawsuit against the city.

Court records in DeKalb County, where the teen was attending school, show that Quintonio LeGrier had been in trouble with police before Saturday's shooting.

Antonio LeGrier, the teen's father, told police his son went to his mother's home for Christmas break but was then sent to stay with his father. On Christmas Day, his father invited him to a Christmas party, but the teen declined to go, the law enforcement source said the father told authorities.

When the father returned home from the party with a plate of food for the teen, the son became agitated with the portion, according to the law enforcement source. The father went to another holiday party, and upon returning saw that his son had grown more agitated with him, the source said the father told authorities.

 Antonio LeGrier became fearful and went into his bedroom, locking the door. At some point, the teen came to his door and banged on it, using the baseball bat. The father then called police, telling authorities he feared his son may try to hurt him, the law enforcement source said.

Another law enforcement source said that authorities believe the teen also briefly called police, shortly before his father called. According to police call logs, a person claiming to be "Q" had called at 4:25 a.m., claiming his own life was in danger but offering little detail before hanging up. Antonio LeGrier called police 30 seconds later, according to the logs.

The father then called his downstairs neighbor, Jones, the first source said, and told her to keep her door locked and watch out for police, and let them in when they arrived. The father told authorities he didn't come back out, staying in his room because he was scared, and let Jones watch for police.

When police arrived, Jones apparently opened the front door that separates the vestibule of the building with the front porch, according to the law enforcement source. When the officers arrived, they got to the second-to-last step before the porch when the teen came running out of the building, swinging the bat, and shots were fired, the source said.

The teen collapsed into the building's vestibule after he was shot, and Jones collapsed in her apartment, the law enforcement source said.

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* Sooner, rather than Later.
or, "No Man Controls Truth's Timetable"


Happy New Year!

Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatsoever things are true,
whatever things are honorable,
whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report;
if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise,
think on these things.

~ Philippians 4:8