Mother Files Lawsuit In 2013 Fatal Chicago Police Shooting Of Son
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago mother says police had no right to shoot and kill her son three years ago, so now she's suing.
It's the number of shots fired that jumps out at you: police officers pumped 29 shots into Terrance Harris. But investigators say that only happened after he'd repeatedly stabbed a police officer.
"I did not know that he was even shot that many times until I got the autopsy report," said Lenora Bonds.
Not until today, says Lenora Bonds, did she have any idea that Chicago police shot her son, Terrance Harris, 29 times when she called them to her home in October 2013.
"Chicago police have a continual pattern of killing our young black men," Bonds said. "They think they life is in their hands and they have the authority and the will to do it."
Bonds admits she called police to calm down her son, who was diagnosed with bipolar disease. A report by IPRA says one officer fired 16 times from a distance of less than five feet, a second officer, 13 rounds from less than ten feet and a third officer, three shots from less than five feet. A total of 32 shots were fired and 29 hit Harris.
"The fact they fired that many shots and hit this man, you have to wonder how the city's gonna say it's not excessive," said attorney Daniel Nixa.
But the IPRA report also says a 911 dispatcher heard Bonds yelling to her son, "Out the knife's down. Put the knife's down." (sic) and Bonds told investigators her son said, "I ain't going back to jail, somebody's gonna die."
Later, Harris allegedly stabbed an officer several times in the face and he was allegedly armed with two butcher knives he refused to drop before police killed him.
Still, Bonds says police stonewalled her for years on how exactly what happened in her son's death.
Now, the city says it will seek to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations has passed.