Chicago Police Shoots Another
Black Man
Another shooting came less than 12 hours after police fatally shot 19 year-old Quintonio LaGrier and a 55 year-old mother of five Bettie Jones at a West Garfield Park home. Answers to that incident have yet to be fully addressed.
So community residents had plenty to say Saturday afternoon, when a Black man, Mikel Lumpkin, 26, was the third person shot by Chicago police Saturday morning. Once again, people are questioning whether it was justified. He was seriously wounded during a police-involved shooting on the Far South Side in the city’s Washington Heights neighborhood, according to authorities.
The neighborhood people of Black descent demonstrated a calm restraint suppressing their anger as they observed the police at work.
At least three SWAT officers carrying heavy weapons stood at the scene. Residents appeared to populate their porches and steps, watching as the police swept the scene; parents, seniors and children all stood to observe and take a long look at the police doing their thing.
As the anger rose seeping from their oppressed spirits a woman yelled at police, ‘telling them that if they wanted to shoot their guns, they should “go hunting” instead.
On the other end of the block, a young Black man paced back and forth like a caged prisoner near the police tape and taunted a Black cop. He paced all the while looking at the one who assisted the Black man’s captors. Speaking directly to the police officer he called out,
“You ain’t affected by it! It’s your job.”
Not far from the pacer another Black male youth cursed at officers and sneered, “Why you never shoot white kids?”
Meanwhile the victim who was shot remains in critical condition as of 9 a.m. Sunday, said Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn spokeswoman Julie Nakis.
According to Chicago Fire Department Media information, the shooting occurred about 1:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of West 103rd Place. Larry Merritt, a spokesman for the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police-involved shootings, said ‘Police fired on someone and hit him.
Mikel Lumpkin was taken in serious to critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to fire officials. He had surgery Saturday night, according to a police statement.
According to the statement, issued about 8:30 p.m., “Police confronted the man and “during that encounter,” an officer shot his gun, hitting the man (Mikel Lumpkin). Police were called to the scene just before 1:30 p.m. because of an “assault in progress” and came upon a man with a gun. Police confronted the man and “during that encounter,” an officer shot his gun, hitting the man.”
The shooting took place after two brothers had been fighting and one brother began to shoot at a home on the block where he knew the other brother was, a police source said. Police arrived on scene and one brother was shot, according to the police source.
How vague a report.
The new IPRA Chief Administrator Sharon Fairley spoke at the scene and acknowledged two officer-involved shootings Saturday, including the West Side shooting that left two people dead.
In keeping with the official way things are done in Chicago she declined to give further information about either shooting, and provided none about the incident on 103rd Place.
However, Fairley did make it clear that IPRA will provide “any and all information” at “the appropriate time.” She clarified that, ‘Right now, IPRA is focused on collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses.’
The Police News Affairs representative said there would no statement by police beyond Fairley’s statement.
Further information was provided by the victim’s family. According to them there was no actual shooting done inside the house. They said that no violence took place between the two brothers, just an “incident” that “could’ve easily been dealt with between them,” according to James Wilson, 30, who is a cousin of the Mikel Lumpkin’s child’s mother. Lumpkin has a 2-year-old daughter, Megan, with Carlissa Wilson, who said Lumpkin is a good man.
“What family doesn’t have incidents where they argue with each other, that’s fine,” James Wilson said. “Someone called the police, they were supposed to do their job, which was serve and protect. They didn’t do that. They did the opposite of that.” Wilson said Lumpkin had put his gun down and surrendered when police shot him five times, “They shot this man five times. Even after he complied with what they asked.”
Lumpkin’s family and friends tell their side According to them, ‘Lumpkin was in the midst of an altercation with his brother. Nobody disputes that he had a gun when police arrived, but residents in Lumpkin’s neighborhood insist that when ordered to put it down he did.
“Everybody knows him as a good person… If you need help or anything he will help you even if he don’t know you,” Carlissa Wilson said.
“I don’t understand what went wrong today with that picture but something definitely went wrong,” Carlissa Wilson said. “There’s no reason he should’ve been shot five times.”
And that seems to be the common thread that connects the shootings oftentimes fatal involving white police and Black victims. Blacks want to know why is it that most of the situations involving Black men and women whether the Black person has a weapon or not ends in his or her death or a serious injury?
In light of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s announcement that the Justice Department has launched a civil “pattern and practice investigation” into the Chicago Police Department to determine whether the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was part of a larger, widespread pattern of officers violating civil rights these continued shootings will give them plenty to investigate.
The investigation is to focus on the department’s use of force, Lynch said, particularly if there are racial, ethnic or other disparities in officers’ use of force, and its systems of accountability.
Well right about now, whether they substantiate that fact or not. Most Blacks in Chicago believe that racism, ethnicity and other disparities weigh heavily in officers use of force.
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