Prosecutors cite insufficient evidence to show Robert Rialmo did not act in self-defense in shooting of Quintonio LeGrier

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Prosecutors said on Friday they would not charge a Chicago police officer who fatally shot a college student and his neighbor while responding to a domestic disturbance in 2015.

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The Cook County state’s attorney’s office said there was “insufficient evidence” to prove the officer, Robert Rialmo, had not acted in self-defense when he shot 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier.

Rialmo said LeGrier charged at him with a baseball bat. Bettie Jones, 55, was also killed in the shooting. The Chicago police department has called her death an accident.

The shooting was investigated by the city agency that oversees police misconduct, the FBI and the Illinois state police.

Rialmo filed a lawsuit against LeGrier’s estate, arguing the shooting left him traumatized. Last July, he was mistakenly returned to street duty in the city.

In the December 2015 shooting, Rialmo and his partner were responding to at least one 911 call about an alleged domestic disturbance involving LeGrier and his father.



According to Rialmo’s initial account, Jones answered her apartment door and pointed the officers to an upstairs apartment. As she turned to walk back to her unit, LeGrier allegedly emerged from the doorway brandishing a bat over his head.

Rialmo said he drew his weapon while backing down the stairs as he ordered LeGrier to drop the bat. He said he was in fear of his life when he fired at least three times, hitting LeGrier in the chest.

Rialmo said that when he checked on LeGrier, he discovered Jones lying on her back.

“The purpose of the review was solely to examine whether the conduct of Officer Rialmo was unlawful,” prosecutors said in their statement.

“The state’s attorney’s review specifically does not address issues related to tactics, whether Officer Rialmo followed police procedures, whether he should be subject to discipline, his employment status, or the merits of any civil litigation.”

Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings, has said LeGrier called 911 three times asking them to send police before he was fatally shot by Rialmo.

“I need the police,” LeGrier said in a recording of one call. The father of the Northern Illinois University student also made a 911 call.

The LeGrier and Jones shooting happened about a month after a video was released showing a white police officer, Jason Van Dyke, shooting a black 17-year-old, Laquan McDonald, 16 times in 2014.

The release of that footage, which contradicted an earlier police account and came more than a year after the incident, prompted widespread protests in Chicago. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in McDonald’s death.

A 13-month Department of Justice investigation reported in January that police in the city regularly used “unjustified, disproportionate and otherwise excessive” force.