Jemel Roberson, the security guard, was trying to detain a man following a shooting at a bar south of Chicago where he worked

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A white officer fatally shot a black security guard south of Chicago over the weekend, a police chief has confirmed.

Jemel Roberson, 26, was wearing a hat with “security” emblazoned across the front when he was shot early on Sunday.

Witnesses say Roberson had been trying to detain a man following an earlier shooting at Manny’s Blue Room in Robbins, a bar where he worked, according to an attorney who filed a lawsuit on behalf of the guard’s family.

When police arrived at the scene, Roberson was holding “somebody on the ground with his knee in his back, with his gun in his back”, witness Adam Harris told WGN-TV.

“Everybody is screaming out, ‘He’s a security guard’,” Harris said.

Investigators said the initial gunfire was reported around 4am on Sunday. An officer responding from nearby Midlothian encountered and shot “a subject with a gun”, the Midlothian police chief, Daniel Delaney, said in a statement. The person was later identified as Roberson.

On Tuesday, Midlothian police department confirmed by email that the officer is white, but it did not release any other details about the officer.

Four other people were shot and wounded in the initial shooting, including a man who authorities believe fired a gun before officers arrived, the Cook county sheriff’s spokeswoman, Sophia Ansari, said.

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Roberson, a father of a nine-month-old boy, was licensed to carry a firearm, Ansari said.

Charges are pending against the man who investigators believe fired the initial shots during the dispute. His name has yet to be released, and he remained hospitalized on Monday, Ansari said.

Roberson was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. The other four people who were shot suffered wounds that weren’t considered life-threatening, Ansari said.

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Attorney Gregory Kulis has filed a civil rights lawsuit seeking more than $1m on behalf of Roberson’s mother, Beatrice Roberson. He said Jemel Roberson was dressed in black but wearing a hat with the word “security” when he was shot.

Kulis also echoed witness reports that Roberson was holding down another man outside the bar when the officer arrived and shot him.

The Rev Marvin Hunter said Roberson was “an upstanding young man” and a promising keyboard player at his and several other area churches.

Roberson was trying to “get enough money together for a deposit on a new apartment”, said Hunter, the great-uncle of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager fatally shot by a white Chicago police officer in a high-profile 2014 case.

Roberson also had hopes of someday becoming a police officer, according to his son’s mother.

“This was going to be my baby’s first Christmas with his dad and now he’s going to miss out on everything,” said Avontea Boose.

Illinois state police are handling the investigation into Roberson’s shooting. The agency said it would not comment on the investigation until it is completed.