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Family Claims Cops Let Shooting Victim Die Without Calling Paramedics

Family Sues Police Over Shooting Victim's Death

EVANSTON, Ill. (CBS) -- The family of a 23-year-old man who was shot and killed in Evanston last year has filed a lawsuit against the city and police department, alleging police allowed him to bleed to death, without medical attention.

WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports Javar Bamberg was shot in an alley in the 1700 block of Grey Avenue, just north of Evanston High School, on Dec. 12, 2012.

Bamberg was shot in the head around 2 a.m., and the lawsuit claims when police responded to a 911 call, he was still alive, and moving, but officers did not call paramedics.

"Never picked up a walkie talkie, or cell phone, to ensure that the paramedics arrived to assist this young man," said David Lowery, CEO of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation, which is representing Bamberg's family. "He was still breathing. He might have been mumbling words. I'm sure he was in excruciating pain, but he was definitely alive, and they stood there."

Lowery claimed there was a racial overtone to the failure to call paramedics.

"If this shooting had occurred in a white community, the paramedics would have been on the scene," he said. "Have you ever known for the police not to call paramedics, or paramedics not showed up on the scene to assist a person who has been shot?"

Bamberg and his family were no strangers to police. Evanston police said the shooting was part of an ongoing feud between two extended families with gang ties.

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