Families, Friends Of Two Fatally Shot By Police Call For Answers
(CBS) -- The day after Chicago police shot and killed a 19-year-old college student and a 55-year-old mother of five, people who knew the pair are calling for an end to police shootings.
WBBM's Nancy Harty reports standing in a light rain wearing a black T-shirt that said, "Rahm Failed Us," Janet Cooksey said Quintonio LeGrier was an honor student and a good son.
"I used to watch the news daily and I would grieve for other mothers and other family members and now today I'm grieving myself," Cooksey said. "When do it come to an end?
Podcast
Jacqueline Walker grew up with Bettie Jones. Police say Jones was accidentally shot by an officer responding to a domestic disturbance involving LeGrier. She wants to know why Chicago Police don't use Tasers more often than guns.
"Why do you have to shoot first and ask questions later?" Walker said. "It's ridiculous. Somebody needs to do something about this."
Jones' nephew Jamal Cole says she enjoyed music and church.
"Everybody was celebrating Christmas that night and we do not want wake up, the family does not want to wake up to news like this."
The group standing outside the home where the shooting took place wants the officers involved to be held accountable and a change in culture at the police department. The department says the officers involved will be put on administrative leave for 30 days.
Podcast
Later Sunday afternoon, dozens of neighbors, community activists, religious leaders and elected officials gathered in front of the home for a prayer vigil.
Pastor Ira Acree of St. John Bible Church says the city of Chicago is under siege and is even calling on President Barack Obama to step in.
"Hopefully at this point, he will express publicly his outrage with police murders here in his hometown," Acree said.
Congressman Danny Davis and Alderman Jason Ervin say there has been no information or communication about what exactly happened.
"It's part of the problem is that we do not have the information right now, knowing who's involved and what the particular facts are," Ervin said. "A lot of that information has not been given to the public. It hasn't been given to us as elected officials and it has not been given to the community so we're left only to wonder."
Davis says that the community has to have faith that the Department of Justice will set things right.
Alderman Jason Ervin says police need better training to deal with the mentally ill.
A spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the mayor spoke with the family of Bettie Jones on Sunday and offered his condolences.
Sunday afternoon, Emanuel's office released a statement saying he has requested the head of the Independent Police Review Authority and the interim Chicago Police superintendent to review crisis intervention team training.
"I have asked that they determine the deficiencies in the current training, and determine what steps can be taken immediately to address them," Emanuel said in the statement.
Saturday, neighbors said police were called to the scene because LeGrier was threatening his father with a baseball bat. The teen's mother says that he was struggling with mental health issues including mood swings.
Police said he was being combative when they arrived. Family called the cops to get him help and to get him to safety.
