On early Sunday morning, Jemel Roberson was working as a security guard in a nightclub in Robbins, a Chicago suburb. As he tried to detain a man apparently involved in a shooting, he was shot by police officers arriving at the scene.
The below statement can be attributed to Karen Sheley, Director, Police Practices Project, ACLU of Illinois.
“Jemel Roberson should be alive today. Working as a security guard while Black should not be a death sentence. In this case, police were more dangerous to him than an active shooter who he apparently subdued.
The police killing of Mr. Roberson was avoidable. Here, a police officer’s assumptions about Mr. Roberson, apparently impacted by bias, rather than a clear-headed assessment of the situation, resulted in a tragedy.”
