The family can blame foster care for his upbringing. Update to this previous story.
Via Chicago Tribune:
A Chicago police officer who fatally shot a 19-year-old college student and accidentally killed his neighbor filed a lawsuit against the teenager’s estate Friday, arguing the student’s actions prompted the shooting and caused the officer “extreme emotional trauma.”
Officer Robert Rialmo’s lawsuit was filed Friday amid Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to win back public trust in the Chicago Police Department following the release of video last fall of an officer shooting to death 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on Oct. 20, 2014, and other cases of alleged police misconduct.
Rialmo’s lawsuit provides the officer’s first public account of the Dec. 26 shooting in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. It says Rialmo opened fire after Quintonio LeGrier twice swung a bat at his head at close range, and LeGrier was shot when Rialmo saw him raising the bat again and thought LeGrier could kill him if LeGrier hit him in the head with the bat.
LeGrier’s father, Antonio LeGrier, had filed a wrongful death lawsuit saying his son wasn’t a threat, and Rialmo’s lawsuit, which asks for damages of more than $180,000, plus court and attorney fees, is a countersuit in that case. Rialmo also fatally shot Antonio LeGrier’s neighbor Bettie Jones, 55, in the confrontation, but police have said her death was accidental.
Antonio LeGrier’s attorney, Basileios Foutris, was incredulous at what he called the officer’s “temerity” in suing the college student’s grieving family. Foutris said the lawsuit was “outlandish.”
“After this coward shot a teenager in the back … he has the temerity to sue him? That’s a new low for the Chicago Police Department,” Foutris said.
Rialmo’s lawyer, Joel Brodsky, said Saturday that his client is going through a grieving process that officers experience whenever they fatally shoot someone.