Attorneys for the families of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones on Thursday excoriated Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson for ruling that the police shooting that killed them both was justified, the Chicago Tribune reports. The criticism came hours before Mayor Rahm Emanuel sat for a rare deposition in the lawsuits that stem from the shooting. The mayor testified behind closed doors in a session that lasted more than three hours. A gag order had barred the lawyers from commenting on Johnson’s ruling that officer Robert Rialmo acted reasonably and should not be punished for shooting LeGrier, 19, as he carried a bat during a domestic disturbance on the West Side in 2015. Rialmo also accidentally shot Jones, 55, a bystander.
After a judge lifted the order Thursday, the families’ attorneys alleged that Johnson was protecting one of his officers and participating in the “code of silence.” “You should not have police officers investigating police officers,” said Larry Rogers Jr., an attorney for the Jones estate. Johnson rejected the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s recommendation that he seek to fire Rialmo, a ruling that could lead to a high-profile clash between disciplinary officials and the police. The superintendent must now work with COPA’s leaders to see whether they can agree on the case. The shooting has attracted intense scrutiny not only because a bystander was killed but also because it was the first fatal police shooting since the court-mandated release a month earlier of video of a white officer shooting Laquan McDonald, an African-American teenager.