Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

CHICAGO — A Chicago police officer who fatally shot a 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed his 55-year-old neighbor has filed a lawsuit against the teen's estate seeking emotional and punitive damages.

The counterclaim filed by officer Robert Rialmo says that student Quintonio LeGrier acted in a "criminal ... malicious and wanton manner" leading to the shooting that has caused "extreme emotional trauma" for the policeman.

The Dec. 26 shooting deaths of LeGrier and Bettie Jones added to mounting tension in this city that was already reeling from the release of a police video in late November that showed a white officer, Jason Van Dyke, fatally shoot a black teen, Laquan McDonald, 16 times.

Within hours of the December incident, police acknowledged that Jones was "accidentally" killed by the officer responding to a domestic disturbance involving her neighbor LeGrier. Authorities said LeGrier was wielding a baseball bat and was "combative" when officers arrived.

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The counterclaim filed by Rialmo in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday offers the first public account of the incident by the police officer.

Shortly before Rialmo and other officers arrived on the scene, LeGrier's father asked Jones, his downstairs tenant, to be on the lookout for police officers and let them into the building when they arrived, according to the families.

According to Rialmo's counterclaim, Jones answered the front door of the building and told him the disturbance was upstairs before turning to head toward her apartment door a few feet away. The counterclaim says Rialmo stepped into the foyer as Jones walked away and could hear someone charging down the staircase from the upstairs apartment.

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The officer claims that LeGrier came barging out of a door that led to his family's second-floor apartment holding a baseball bat. Rialmo says LeGrier took a full swing with the bat that missed his head by just inches, so close that he could feel the "movement of air as the bat moved in front of his face." At that point, Rialmo said he backed away to the top step of the front porch and repeatedly yelled at LeGrier to drop the bat, but the teen continued to move toward him, swung the bat and just missed striking the officer.

Rialmo says he continued to back away from LeGrier to the bottom step of the front porch of the building, but LeGrier continued to ignore orders to drop the bat and approached the officer with the baseball bat cocked over his right shoulder.

The lawsuit argues that Rialmo believed at that point that if he did not use deadly force, LeGrier would have killed him. Rialmo drew his handgun and fired eight times at LeGrier, striking him six times. The officer says LeGrier and the front wall of the building blocked his view of Jones, who was still in the front doorway of the building. The fourth round that Rialmo fired pass through LeGrier and struck Jones, according to the lawsuit. An autopsy revealed that Jones was struck once in the chest.

"Officer Rialmo has suffered, and continues to suffer, injuries of pecuniary nature, not limited to medical expenses, damage to person, pain and suffering, and physical and emotional trauma, all which are permanent," the lawsuit says.

Rialmo is seeking between $50,000 and $10 million in damages from the LeGrier estate.

The families of LeGrier and Jones filed separate lawsuits against the city last month.

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter:AamerISmad