The mother of a security guard mistakenly killed by a police officer while detaining a suspected shooter said $7.5 million will not compensate her family for his wrongful death.
Beatrice Roberson said she wants the officer who pulled the trigger on her son, Jemel Roberson, while he was doing his job at a bar in suburban Chicago prosecuted.
“The person that shot and murdered my son – he needs to be in jail,” Beatrice Roberson told CBS 2 after the municipality where the officer worked agreed to the multimillion-dollar settlement.
“The money doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “I wanted my son.”
Reports show Midlothian Police Officer Ian Covey shot Jemel in November 2018 in the parking lot of Manny’s Bar Room. Witnesses said that two groups of people were fighting in the club before it escalated into a shooting. Four people were injured before Jemel jumped in and held down a man witnesses identified as a shooter before cops arrived.
Another security guard said Covey came in and pointed the AR-15 rifle at him before standing on a bar and waving it. The other guard said he was spared because he identified himself as security to Covey, but witnesses said the officer ignored them when they shouted that Jemel was also a security guard.
Illinois State Police said Jemel disregarded multiple commands from Covey to drop the weapon he held to the man he apprehended.
In October 2020, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office “concluded that the totality of evidence is insufficient to support a criminal charge against” Covey.
The prosecutor’s office cited the autopsy report, showing that Jemel was wearing all black clothes without identifying writing when his body arrived at the morgue. Foxx’s office also spoke to 100 witnesses. However, the other guard and another witness told reporters that Jemel was wearing a hat and shirt with the word security on it.
The slain man’s daughter, Justice Roberson, now 3 years old, will receive the settlement, which has to be approved by a county judge. Justice was born a few months after her father was killed. Her grandmother said she has started asking questions about him.
Although Beatrice said the settlement would financially provide for Justice for the rest of her life, she said her family deserves an apology and accountability.
“I will never accept that as an apology because I’m a person. My son was a person,” she said. “It’s not about the money. They need to look me in my face and apologize.”
The mother has vowed to keep fighting for justice for her son.
“My son was shot four times in his back, and this murderer gets away?” She said. “There’s no justice for Jemel.”
