Chicago Defender Report On Police Shooting Stirs Protest

POSTED: 2:49 p.m. CST December 10, 2002 UPDATED: 5:29 p.m. CST December 10, 2002

CHICAGO -- About 70 people rushed into the offices of the Chicago Defender Tuesday afternoon, pushing a reporter in anger over a story in the newspaper about a man fatally shot by police over the weekend.

Protesting and shouting, "Stop the killing," the group entered the Defender offices, at 2400 S. Michigan Ave., about 1:30 p.m., according to Carol Davis, a secretary in the office.

Davis said the protesters pushed a reporter in the face, and tried to take a camera.

Chicago Defender Newsroom "They can't just walk up in here like they do," Davis said.

Police News Affairs Officer Tom Donegan said the demonstrators were at the offices around 2 p.m., and he could not immediately provide further details.

"They just stormed in there, chanting `no justice, no peace,'" said Chicago Defender reporter Ferman Beckless, who was not in the office when the demonstrators arrived.

Beckless said the demonstrators, who turned over desks and destroyed plants in the office, were apparently angry about a story he reported in Monday's edition about a man fatally shot by police Sunday in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex, at 2030 S. State St.

NBC5's Anna Davlantes reported that some of the protesters were CHA residents who claimed to have witnessed the shooting and offered a very different version of events.

Eugene Scott The publisher of the paper, Eugene Scott (pictured, left), told NBC5 that he hears the message of the protesters, but does not agree with the way they said it.

"They indicated ... that they wanted their side of the story to be heard," Scott said. "Their side of the story, allegedly, is that the residents saw something different when they looked out the window. They saw an individual on his knews with his hands up. So, we'll take a look at it. We'll look at the story and re-open it to see if there's any other legitimate side to that story."

"They (the demonstrators) are saying it was not a justified shooting," Beckless said. "They say police shot an innocent bystander. I find it difficult to believe that police shot an innocent bystander."

Beckless said he could not understand why the protesters were angry with people at the paper.

"We reported the story, but you know, we didn't shoot the guy," he said. "So I don't know why they came to our office to tear it up."

Police officials have said two police officers were justified in fatally shooting Donnell Strickland, 24, who allegedly fired and slightly wounded an officer.

At a roundtable discussion held at Harrison Area headquarters Sunday the officials determined that two Central District tactical officers acted in accordance with departmental guidelines and state statutes, according to police News Affairs Deputy Director Pat Camden.

"Based on the facts, the officers fired their weapons when they were being fired at and protecting a fellow wounded officer," he said.

The wounded officer, Thomas Forst, 47, who received a graze wound to his head, was released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital Sunday, Camden said. Forst has been with the department since 1991, he added.

The roundtable was attended by the officers involved, Harrison Area Cmdr. Richard Kobel, Central District Cmdr. John Risley, representatives from the office of the Cook County State's Attorney and the Office of Professional Standards as well as five civilian witnesses, Camden said.

The accounts of five witnesses coincided with the police officers' accounts of the shooting, Camden added. This conflicted with a woman's claim on a television news broadcast that Strickland was on his hands and knees when officers shot him. "The young lady that volunteered that information had two previous run-ins with the police in the past year," Camden said. One of the run-ins involved battery to a police officer, he added.

Strickland was shot twice in the buttocks, Camden said.

"If he was kneeling down and we executed him it's kind of hard" for him to have suffered those wounds, he added.

Police recovered a .38-caliber revolver supposedly used by Strickland that contained six spent cartridges, Camden said.

The shooting occurred after four Central District Tactical Unit officers approached Strickland and a group of men in a parking lot at 2030 S. State St. at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday after receiving citizen complaints of narcotics and weapons in the area, Camden said.

The four officers were trying to find out why the men were in the parking lot, Camden said.

"A typical street stop," he added.

Strickland then began running, leading Forst on a brief foot chase, before turning and firing at the officer.

Two other officers then fired several shots at Strickland, Camden said. He would not specify the number of shots fired.

Strickland was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. Sunday at the Stein Institute, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

No narcotics were found on Strickland, he added.

An investigation by the Office of Professional Standards was ongoing, Camden said at the time.

Police could not provide further details about the shooting or about the disturbance Tuesday.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2002

Answers

sounds like this should say Miami, not Chicago. unless it's the Chicago of the past when there were mobsters.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002