Did Chicago Cop Change His Story In Fatal Shooting Of Quintonio LeGrier?
(CBS) – There are new questions about a deadly shooting by Chicago police late last year.
The officer who said Quintonio LeGrier swung a bat at him did not make that claim until two days later, CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
Newly released city street camera video shows the police van Officer Robert Rialmo and his partner were in while heading to the home of LeGrier. Other video shows police heading to LeGrier's apartment building, moments after he and neighbor Bettie Jones were fatally shot by Rialmo.
Now, police reports indicate Rialmo had different accounts of what happened that night.
Attorney Basileios Foutris is the attorney for LeGrier's estate.
"It indicates to me that this is an after-the-fact justification, in order to justify what he did, to try to prevent himself from being prosecuted for killing an unarmed kid," the attorney says.
About an hour and a half after the shooting, Rialmo told detectives this, according to reports: "LeGrier had an aluminum baseball bat in his hands which were raised above his head."
Re-interviewed two days later, Rialmo mentioned things he never said in the first report: "Police Officer Rialmo heard someone charging down the stairs from the second floor."
Referring to LeGrier, the civilian allegedly "swung the baseball bat at Police Officer Rialmo with an overhand downward swing and then a half backards swing."
Foutris, the LeGrier estate attorney, says Rialmo's partner never reported Quintonio swung the bat.
Rialmo's attorney, Joel Brodsky disagrees there are two different accounts. He says the narrative of an event can expand as more details are filled in during subsequent interviews.
"It doesn't surprise me. That's actually typical," attorney Joel Brodsky says.
LeGrier's mother is not convinced.
"It was obvious to me, they had something to cover up and for him to change his story, two days later," Janet Cooksey says. "If someone tried to strike you with a bat, that would be one of the first things you would say."
