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News > World

Police Shoot Dead African-American Security Guard in Chicago

  • Police Shoot Dead African-American Security Guard in Chicago.

    Police Shoot Dead African-American Security Guard in Chicago. | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 November 2018
Opinion

A gospel-singing security guard, who'd just detaned a suspected gunman, was shot dead by police in Chicago who mistook him for a criminal.

26 year-old Jamel Roberson - a gospel musician who dreamed of joining the police force, was shot dead by the people he wanted to be with, according to WGN-TV.

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At 4:00am Chicago time Sunday, security guard Jemel Roberson, 26, apprehended an armed attacker, pinning him down until police arrived.

Police arrived shortly after, and according to witnesses, opened fire on African-American Roberson, killing him instantly.

"The very people that he wanted to be family with took his life," Patricia Hill, the pastor of Purposed Hill church in Chicago, told WGN-TV.

Roberson worked as a gospel musician at several nearby churches, and was working at Manny's Blue Room in Robbins, Illinois, the location of the shooting.

Witness Adam Harris told Fox32 that Roberson, who was armed with a legally owned firearm, had one of the attackers pinned down with his knee in his back when police opened fire.

"Everybody was screaming out 'security, he was a security guard'", Mr Harris said, "yet they still did their job and saw a black man with a gun and basically killed him".

Chief Dan Delaney gave his side of the story; "A Midlothian officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an officer-involved shooting."

"How in the world does the security guard get shot by police?" New Spiritual Light Baptist Church Pastor Walter Turner told ABC7 News.

"A young man that was literally doing his job and now he's gone."

"Jemel was a gifted basketball player and musician, and his love for God and his family were at the forefront of his life," according to the GoFundMe page that was set-up to pay for his funeral expenses, which has raised US$12,000 as of Monday evening.

The shooting of Roberson is yet another example of a disproportionately high proportion of police shootings in the US involving black people, according to FBI data.

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