In a twisted unraveling of events following last month’s shooting death of Chicago teen Quintonio LeGrier, the officer responsible for his death has just announced plans to sue the deceased teen’s estate.
On December 26th officers responded to a call for help from LeGrier’s father at the family’s home. At the time, Mr. LeGrier insisted he was in danger, stating that his son was carrying a bat in the family’s home. Officer Robert Rialmo arrived to the scene and immediately opened firing, killing LeGrier and his fellow neighbor, 55-year-old Bettie Jones.
This entire ordeal has become increasingly murky and unclear as more details surrounding the killings surfaced online earlier this week. Prior to the operator’s dispatch in response to his father’s call, Quintonio himself had already dialed police three times to request assistance.
Audio of Quintonio’s calls with Cook County operators:
Quintonio’s calls with 9-1-1 dispatchers reveal that the operators ignored his cries for help. One of those brazen individuals even hung up on the teen during his second call at 4:23 am. That dispatcher is still on the job.
In a remorseful state, Mr. LeGrier tearfully described his son’s last moments during an interview with CNN’s Brook Baldwin:
Police and paramedics on the scene did not provide aid to Quintonio as he died, and Mr. LeGrier was held for hours without being told about the state of his son’s condition. Yet, the officer involved now claims that he has endured emotional distress following this ordeal. And yet, the world has lost another brilliant young man; Quintonio was an engineering student attending Northern Illinois University.
Rialmo, pictured above, was simply put on desk duty in response to the pending investigation surrounding the deaths of LeGrier and Jones. Meanwhile, Mayor Rahm Emmanuael has promised to announce plans for officer training on mental illness amidst rapid calls for his removal from office.
Quintonio’s mother has since stated the following in response to Rialmo’s retaliatory suit,
“My son will never give me any grand-children and he talk about his stress? I had a promising honor student who always talked about all the great things he was going to do, and he talks about his stress? Where does the disrespect stop?”
