Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Cook County investigators and U.S. Justice Department mediators have headed to Rockford in a bid to restore public confidence after the recent fatal shooting of a 23-year-old man by two Rockford police officers.
In what could be a watershed moment for how the city handles such cases, the Cook County Public Integrity Task Force -- made up of Illinois State Police and Cook County state’s attorney’s office investigators -- is looking into the Aug. 24 death of Mark Anthony Barmore.
Officials said it was the first time in memory a police shooting in the community would be investigated by an outside agency.
Barmore, an African-American, was shot by two white police officers who chased him into a day-care center before opening fire in front of about a dozen young children. His funeral will be held Thursday.
The officers reported Barmore grabbed one of their guns and that they shot him in fear for their lives. Two witnesses insist Barmore, whom police sought because of an alleged domestic violence incident, had his hands up and was trying to surrender when he was slain.
The U.S. Department of Justice has dispatched workers to try to quell racial unrest in the city 80 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
The Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, which has no investigative or arrest authority, hopes to bring city officials together with community leaders in places where racial conflicts have arisen, said Becky Monroe, a general counsel for the department. Monroe declined to discuss the Rockford situation.
Winnebago County State’s Atty. Joe Bruscato asked state police for an investigation, saying it became clear a significant part of the city’s population would not trust one headed by the Rockford Police Department.
Bruscato said he could not remember a previous police-involved shooting in the city investigated by an agency other than Rockford police.
The Barmore case, he said, might herald a new standard in Rockford.
“We’re very interested in setting a new protocol or procedure that the public can be confident in,” Bruscato said.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Tribune