Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday called a police-involved shooting that left an innocent mother of five dead over the weekend “troubling” and questioned why officers aren’t using options other than lethal force.
"The recent shooting is deeply troubling and demands us to question why more options other than lethal force aren't available to police officers,” Rauner said in a statement. “This tragedy further underscores the need for a broad and deep federal investigation, which I continue to strongly support."
The statement comes in response to an officer-involved shooting that killed a 55-year-old woman and a 19-year-old Northern Illinois University student.
Police have admitted that the 55-year-old woman’s shooting was an accident, and that Bettie Jones was tragically killed when officers fired while responding to a domestic disturbance call on the city’s West Side. Nineteen-year-old Quintonio LeGrier was also killed in the shooting after police said he was threatening his father with a metal baseball bat.
Jones' daughter Latesha Jones said that police shot the mother of five from outside the home, where she has resided for a year and a half, after she opened the door.
Twelve hours later, another man was injured in a police-involved shooting and was taken to the hospital in serious-to-critical condition, authorities said.
The shootings have prompted Mayor Rahm Emanuel to cut his family trip to Cuba short and also sparked the installation of two “significant” measures of reform in the department.
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Under a new policy, all Chicago police officers who have fired their weapons will be placed on administrative duty, away from the field, for at least 30 days while authorities investigate their training and fitness for duty.
The city has also called on Interim Police Supt. John Escalante and the head of Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority, Sharon Fairley, to review the department's crisis intervention and de-escalation policies.
Rev. Al Sharpton called for Emanuel to resign over the shootings, calling the latest incident “a crisis on steroids.”
"I've never seen this kind of detachment in the years that I've been fighting. Whether I got along with the mayor or not, how do you stay in Cuba on vacation?" Sharpton said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
His comments echo other calls for action made by the families of Jones and LeGrier at a news conference Sunday.
"When is the mayor going to step up?" Janet Cooksey said. "CPD has failed us over and over."
Sharpton also earlier criticized Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner for not speaking out as the outcry over the Chicago Police Department's handling of officer-involved shootings has grown.
