CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Police Board will decide the fate of a police officer who fatally shot a 19-year-old college student and a woman bystander.
Board member Eva-Dina Delgado was randomly chosen to either side with Superintended Eddie Johnson, who believes Officer Robert Rialmo should keep his job, or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which recommended Rialmo’s firing.
The police disciplinary agency ruled the 2015 shooting of Quintonio LeGrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones was unjustified. Rialmo has said he fired his gun when LeGrier came toward him swinging a baseball bat. The police disciplinary body concluded LeGrier didn’t swing the bat at Rialmo.
Johnson contends Rialmo followed the police use of force policy in place at the time and should be exonerated.
Delgado’s decision that Johnson hadn’t met “his burden of overcoming” COPA’s recommendation means the nine-member police board will decide Rialmo’s fate.
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