Chicago – Officer Responds To Gunfire, Kills Armed Guard Detaining Man

Chicago – A police officer fatally shot an armed security guard who witnesses say was trying to detain a man involved in a shooting at a suburban Chicago bar, authorities said.

Investigators said 26-year-old Jemel Roberson was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to a hospital early Sunday following the shooting at Manny’s Blue Room in Robbins, just south of Chicago.

Four other people were shot and wounded during the incident, including a man who police believe fired a gun before police arrived, Cook County sheriff’s spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said.

When police arrived at the scene, Roberson was holding “somebody on the ground with his knee in his back, with his gun in his back,” witness Adam Harris told WGN-TV.

“Everybody is screaming out, ‘He’s a security guard,'” Harris said.

Roberson was licensed to carry a firearm, Ansari said.

Charges were pending Monday against the man who investigators believe fired the initial shots during a dispute. His name has yet to be released, and he remained hospitalized Monday, Ansari said.

Investigators said the initial gunfire was reported around 4 a.m. An officer responding from nearby Midlothian encountered and shot “a subject with a gun,” Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said in a statement. The person was later identified as Roberson.

No details have been released about the officer. Roberson, who was black, was the only person killed. The other four people who were shot suffered wounds that weren’t considered life-threatening, Ansari said.

A federal lawsuit seeking more than $1 million was filed Monday on behalf of Roberson’s mother, Beatrice Robinson, against the officer and Midlothian.

Her attorney, Gregory Kulis, alleges that Jemel Roberson was outside the bar after apprehending one of the people involved in the shooting inside. When the officer came out of the bar, he shot Roberson, Kulis said.

Roberson was dressed entirely in black and wearing a hat with the word “Security” on the front, Kulis said.

Rev. Marvin Hunter said Roberson was “an upstanding young man” and a promising keyboard player at his and several other area churches.

Roberson, the father of a 9-month-old boy, was trying to “get enough money together for a deposit on a new apartment,” said Hunter, the great uncle of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager fatally shot in 2014 by a white Chicago police officer.

Roberson also had hopes of someday becoming a police officer, according to his son’s mother.

“This was going to be my baby’s first Christmas with his dad and now he’s going to miss out on everything,” said Adontea Boose.

Illinois State Police are handling the investigation into Roberson’s shooting. The agency said it would not comment on the investigation until it is completed.