Quintonio LeGrier & Bettie Jones

Quintonio LeGrier, 19, a Northern Illinois University student experiencing a mental health crisis, and Bettie Jones, 55, his family's downstairs neighbor, were both shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo on December 26, 2015, while responding to a domestic disturbance call. Jones opened her door to direct officers upstairs; LeGrier came down the stairs swinging an aluminum bat, and Rialmo fired eight shots, six striking LeGrier and one accidentally striking Jones, whom police immediately acknowledged was an innocent bystander. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office declined to bring criminal charges in 2017, finding insufficient evidence to disprove self-defense. The city's own police oversight agency later found Rialmo's account “inconsistent and ultimately unreliable” and recommended his firing; the Chicago Police Board unanimously fired him in 2019, though only over the Jones shooting — a separate civil jury found the LeGrier shooting itself justified. No one has ever been criminally charged in either death.

Chicago, IL · Cook County

• 2015: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The domestic disturbance call, the shooting, and both deaths, per the Chicago Police Department, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), and Rialmo's own account.
• LeGrier's father called 911 three times reporting his son, who had a history of mental health issues, was behaving erratically and threatening him; neither the father's calls nor LeGrier's own three 911 calls that night informed dispatchers of any mental health context.
• Rialmo fired eight shots, striking LeGrier six times and Jones once; the department acknowledged Jones was shot by mistake.
• The Cook County State's Attorney's Office announced in February 2017 that there was insufficient evidence to prove Rialmo did not act in self-defense, declining to bring charges.
• COPA investigators concluded Rialmo's use of deadly force was not justified, finding “no evidence” to support his account and calling his statements “inconsistent and ultimately unreliable”; the police superintendent initially rejected that finding before later recommending Rialmo's firing.
• The Chicago Police Board voted unanimously in October 2019 to fire Rialmo specifically over the Jones shooting, finding he had room to safely reposition himself before firing in her direction.
• Jones's family settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the city for $16 million; LeGrier's family won $1 million from a civil jury, but a judge voided that award after the same jury separately found Rialmo's shooting of LeGrier itself was justified.

• Whether LeGrier was close enough and moving fast enough to justify deadly force at the moment Rialmo fired, as the civil jury ultimately found regarding LeGrier specifically while the Police Board found Rialmo could have repositioned to avoid hitting Jones, reflects two different bodies reaching different conclusions about the same shots.
• The specific reasoning behind the state's attorney's declination, versus COPA's contrary finding that Rialmo's account was unreliable, has not been fully reconciled in any public record.
• What if anything in the responding officers' training addressed encountering a person in mental health crisis has not been detailed publicly.

• NBC Chicago — “Police Board Fires Robert Rialmo in Aftermath of Fatal 2015 Shooting”
• ABC7 Chicago — “No charges for cop in fatal shooting of Bettie Jones, Quintonio LeGrier”
• CBS Chicago — “Police Board Member To Decide If Officer Could Be Fired For Double Fatal Shooting”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs