Cook County Employee May Own Robbins Bar Where Police-Involved Shooting Left Security Guard Dead
CHICAGO (CBS) – The bar at the center of last month's deadly police-involved shooting in Robbins may have been run by a Cook County corrections officer, documents show.
The Cook County Sheriff's Office of Professional Review is investigating whether Nakeeh Buchanan Smith, a Cook County corrections officer since 2003, had a stake in ownership of Manny's Blue Room without approval from the Department of Corrections.
This adds to already-existing legal troubles at the bar.
Family and friends continue their rallying cry of "justice for Jemel," asking for answers at a public meeting in Midlothian Wednesday night. But they're also turning up the heat on the Village of Robbins, asking if leaders could have better handled the bar within village limits.
Wednesday night the lights were on and the advertisements still blinking at Manny's Blue Room, but those were the only signs of life at the once popular bar.
A single car sits in the empty lot of the shutdown club. Friends tell CBS 2 it belongs to Jemel Roberson, the security guard killed there by police one month ago.
CBS 2 found Manny's liquor license expired six weeks before witnesses say a drunk customer stormed inside and began shooting on Nov. 11. He shouldn't have been served alcohol, they say.
That drunken bar fight led Robbins police to call for backup from the Midlothian officer who shot Roberson, allegedly mistaking the armed security officer for a gunman.
On the financial front, it looks like Manny's tax bills are not fully paid. State business records show the bar is registered to a woman named Holly Dupart, but the Chicago Tribune reports Robbins gave a business license to a company named Luxury U.S.
Buchanan Smith is listed as the owner of Luxury U.S.
Sources say Buchanan Smith owns the bar with her husband Erwin Smith, who angrily denied that when CBS 2 reached him weeks ago on the phone and on Facebook.
An attorney for Holly Dupart, who is listed as Manny's owner on Illinois state records, declined to comment Wednesday.