A black security guard was killed by police after springing to action when a gunman opened fire in a Chicagoland bar.
After a group of drunken patrons were asked to leave Manny’s Blue Room bar in Robbins, Ill., around 4 a.m. Sunday, one of the men reportedly came back with a gun and started shooting, according to WGN9.
Armed security guard Jemel Roberson, 26, apprehended that man, only to be killed by cops responding to the gunfire. Bystanders say police shot the wrong guy.
“(Roberson) had somebody on the ground with his knee in back, with his gun in his back like, ‘Don’t move,’ ” according to Adam Harris, who was in the bar.
That’s when witnesses said an officer from Midlothian — a southwest Chicago suburb bordering Robbins — entered the bar and killed Robersen.
Clergy members at Purposed Church, where Roberson played drums and keyboards reportedly said the slain security guard hoped to become a police officer.
“He was getting ready to train and do all that stuff, so the very people he wanted to be family with, took his life,” according to the Rev. Patricia Hill.
Hill’s husband, LeAundre Hill, Purposed Church’s senior pastor, felt responding officers behaved rashly.
“Once again, it’s the continued narrative that we see of shoot first, ask questions later,” he said.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Roberson had a fire owner’s identification card, but did not have a concealed weapon permit.
“A Midlothian officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an officer-involved shooting. The subject the officer shot was later pronounced deceased at an area hospital,” Chief Daniel Delaney of the Midlothian Police Department said in a statement.
Delaney did not respond to a Daily News request for the names or races of responding officers.
The incident at Manny’s Blue Room comes four days after a gunman in California opened fire at Borderline Bar & Grill, killing 12 people including a police officer.
