Jemel Roberson’s mother names cop in fatal shooting of security guard, vows to ‘fight until I die’
It’s time to put my feelings to the side, my grieving to the side for a minute, because I need to fight for my son,” Beatrice Roberson said.
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The mother of Jemel Roberson, the security guard killed by a suburban Chicago police officer in November, has sued the department and the officer, revealing his name in the lawsuit after police tried to keep it away from the public, according the Chicago Sun-Times.
“I’m going to fight for my son,” Beatrice Roberson said outside Manny’s Blue Room Lounge in Robbins, where her son was killed on Nov. 11, the report says. “It’s time to put my feelings to the side, my grieving to the side for a minute, because I need to fight for my son.”
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Roberson filed an amended lawsuit last Friday which revealed the name of the officer, Ian Covey, note the Sun-Times. Midlothian and Illinois State Police had kept Covey’s name secret since the shooting.
Covey’s name was later confirmed as the shooter by Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney. Covey, who is white, is a four-year veteran of the department.
He reportedly shot Roberson while subduing a gunman who shot four people inside the night club. Delaney, who has called it a tragic instance of “blue-on-blue friendly fire,” had previously refused to release Covey’s name, and the Illinois State Police followed suit.
“For two months, Mrs. Roberson has asked me, ‘Greg, who shot my son?’” family attorney Gregory Kulis told the news outlet. “For two months they have told us, ‘We’re not going to release the name.’ That’s not transparency.”
Roberson said she had been “too messed up” since her son’s passing to speak publicly. She said that her son, who was also an organist at his Chicago church, had dreams of one day becoming a police officer.
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“I never thought that my son would get killed by somebody that he wanted to be,” she said. “I want justice for my son,” Beatrice Roberson said. “I want this officer put away.”
Covey is on administrative leave from the department while state police continue to investigate. Kulis feels that things would be much different if the roles were reversed.
“If a young man shot a police officer, that young man’s picture would be on the TV tonight,” Kulis said. “I don’t know what race played in the mind of Officer Covey. What race may have played in his mind, that’s a question he’s going to have to answer.”
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