Family Wishes Slain Officer's Grandson Had Been Institutionalized
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Family members of a murdered Chicago Police officer say they begged her to put her troubled teenage grandson in an institution.
As WBBM Newsradio's Lisa Fielding reports, neighbors say Officer Hester Scott was devoted to her grandson, Keshawn Perkins, 15, who is now charged with killing her.
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Scott took Perkins in from a drug-addicted daughter, and when he ran away, she kept taking him back.
Perkins is charged as an adult with one count of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery in the death of Scott, 55, who was killed in her home Friday afternoon in the 8800 block of South Wallace Street, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Perkins had skipped school Friday and fell asleep while watching television in the basement. Scott found him sleeping, woke him up and began yelling at him.
He beat his 55-year-old grandmother with a lamp and stabbed her several times with a kitchen knife "until she shut up," prosecutors said.
Perkins then wrapped her in a blanket and dragged her to a catch basin in the back yard and dumped her there before taking her purse, which was covered with blood, and fleeing.
In court Sunday, a judge ordered him held without bond.
As Scott's family plans for her funeral, relatives also say they want to get something back from the 25-year police officer – her badge.
The department had relieved Scott of her police powers after allegations by Perkins that she had abused him. The allegations were never proven.
"We want the police to do right by her, so he (her son) and the grandchildren will have something so they can believe in our city," said the victim's sister, Marlene Scott-Pittman. "They need to see the city is showing them, 'We made a mistake and we're going to fix this the best that we can.'"
The president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police said he asked Police Supt. Garry McCarthy that Scott's badge be reinstated in time for her funeral.
"We're hoping he does the right thing," said Mike Shields. "I just think that's proper for a Chicago Police officer (and) this officer is certainly entitled to her badge."
If convicted, Perkins faces a minimum life sentence because the murdered victim was a Chicago Police officer.
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