Alvarez asks FBI to help in probe of Quintonio LeGrier, Bettie Jones shooting
CHICAGO (STMW) - Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez seemed to take a shot at the Independent Police Review Authority Thursday, issuing a statement that she has asked the FBI to help with the investigation of the deadly police-involved shooting that claimed the life 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and West Garfield Park resident Bettie Jones.
Alvarez said while she is urging “a thorough, professional” by the Independent Police Review Authority, her office has also contacted the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
The top prosecutor also stressed that her office “does not control the pace or process of IPRA” and that the investigative agency needs “to get it right so that justice can be served.”
“This is a deeply disturbing incident that demands a very deliberate and meticulous independent investigation. At this stage, the investigation is being conducted by IPRA, but my office has also contacted the FBI to request their involvement as well,” Alvarez said in the statement.
Once the investigation is complete, Alvarez said her office will determine whether any charges would be filed.
LeGrier and Jones, 55, were shot and killed by an officer who was responding to a domestic disturbance call LeGrier’s father made at the apartment building he owns last weekend.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the families of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones who are grieving the tragic loss of their loved ones,” Alvarez said at the end of her statement
Alvarez, along with IPRA investigators, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Police Supt. Garry McCarthy have been under heavy fire for the way they handled the Oct. 2014 police-involved shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with the teenager’s murder late November after the video of the incident was made public.
Also on Thursday, the city released to the media a trove of emails — hundreds of messages, covering about 3,000 pages — regarding the McDonald case.