Bettie Jones, 57

Chicago, Illinois
December 26, 2015

Agencies: Chicago Police Department Illinois

Cause of death: Shooting

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Last updated: almost 4 years ago

Overview

The Chicago Police Department was under fire again Saturday after cops responding to a domestic disturbance call fatally shot a 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed a 55-year-old mother of five.

Officers were summoned to the West Garfield Park home about 4:20 a.m. after Quintonio LeGrier, 19, started threatening his father with a bat, neighbors and relatives said.

The fatal confrontation that ensued claimed the lives of LeGrier and Bettie Jones, who lived on the ground-floor apartment of his father’s two-story home, authorities said.

Chicago police initially released few details on the shooting, saying only that an officer opened fire after they were “confronted by a combative subject.”

But late Saturday, the department admitted that Jones was struck by a bullet meant for LeGrier. LeGrier’s father told reporters he had called the police and then Jones — warning her not to open her door until the officers showed up.

Once cops arrived, Antontio LeGrier said, he started heading downstairs when he heard the crack of gunfire.

By the time he made it to the ground floor, his son and Jones were lying motionless in the foyer.

The officer, LeGrier said, was yelling, “no, no, no.”

“In my opinion, he knew he had messed up. It was senseless,” Antonio LeGrier, 47, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Legal Action

December 2015 Autopsy report

February 2016 Cop sues victim he killed

February 2017 No charges for killer cop

In September 2018, a Chicago City Council committee approved a $16 million payment for the family of Jones.

Community and Family Efforts

#SayHerName

October 2016 Al Jazeera Documentary The Lives of Women