Unarmed Man Killed In Police-Involved Shooting
Updated: 12/05/10 1:52 p.m.
CHICAGO (WBBM) - The Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the shooting by police that killed an unarmed man on Saturday night on the city's South Side.
Chicago Police say tactical officers from the Gresham District were doing surveillance around 81st and Ashland where they thought a drug deal was going on.
Officers noticed suspicious activity going on in a vehicle - apparently a drug deal.
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Police say the man in that vehicle - 30-year-old Ontario Billups - did not take his hands out of his jacket, and when he got out of a vehicle, police say he made "aggressive movements" and that an officer fired because she was in fear of her life.
Billups' sister Trevia Jones-Gaines doesn't buy that explanation.
"He had no thoughts of violence in him. This is why I know that the police had to execute him," she said. "Because my brother - I can hear him talking to me right now. And if the police asked him to take his hands out of his pocket, my brother would have done it."
Police Superintendent Weis says, "Officers have to make split-second decisions and action always beats reaction. So what you have to look at is the totality of the circumstances, which is being done right now by the Independent Police Review Authority."
"I don't believe that story," Ontario Billup's sister, Angie, says of the police department's account. She says she believes police are saying what they need to say to justify the shooting of an unarmed man.
Weis cautions people not to draw a negative conclusion before the investigation is complete.
"I've never met a police officer who makes up and thinks I hope I get to kill someone today," he said.
