The family of a Chicago-area assistant principal who was shot and killed in his apartment building last year by one of his neighbors filed a lawsuit alleging negligence and wrongful death.
No one was ever criminally charged in the death of Abnerd Joseph, who was the assistant principal at Intrinsic High School in downtown Chicago.
The 32-year-old Atlanta native was fatally shot in his luxury, high-rise in downtown Chicago on Sept. 14, 2023.
According to police, Joseph was “wildly” knocking on his neighbors’ doors and “yelling incoherently” that evening. Authorities said that when multiple neighbors and the building’s doorman checked on Joseph, Joseph hit the doorman several times.
Joseph’s family struggles with excepting that possibility, telling Tampa Bay News, “He didn’t live that life, that violent life,” Jay Charles, Joseph’s brother said.
The police report states that one neighbor, a concealed carry license holder, warned Joseph he was armed and tried to calm him down. Joseph “turned and charged” toward the neighbor, who fired his weapon and struck Joseph multiple times.
Joseph was shot in his chest, abdomen, flank, armpit, and one of his ring fingers.
The neighbor who shot him claimed self-defense. He was taken into custody and later released without charges.
“That doesn’t sound right. Like no, that’s a clear injustice you don’t get to take somebody’s life who meant that much to people. It’s not like he was in a gang or something,” Ashley Joseph, Joseph’s sister said of the neighbor’s release.
Attorneys for Joseph’s family disputed how police characterized the moments leading up to the shooting and allege in the lawsuit that the building’s owners, management, security, and the neighbor who fired the fatal shots are liable because they went to extremes in their response to Joseph’s behavior, especially when police were on the way to the scene.
The family stated that Joseph had just switched medications for his ADHD before his death and believed he was suffering an “emotional distress” event at the time he was shot.
The lawsuit identified the tenant who shot Joseph as 45-year-old Garrett Mark Smith. Attorneys say Smith, who lived on the same floor as Joseph, has no security or law enforcement training.
“There’s a reason that vigilante justice is illegal. And this case demonstrates exactly why,” family attorney Antonio Romanucci said. “It doesn’t matter to our lawsuit at all [if Joseph had been aggressive], because even if there was some sort of physical aggression on Abnerd’s part, what we’re saying is, what you do in that situation is you step back and you deescalate and you give time.”
Joseph’s family has yet to see surveillance video of the shooting, but attorneys for the family plan to subpoena the video. They say he was in his socks, bathrobe, and boxer shorts at the time of the shooting, and was unarmed.
Authorities still classify the case as an open investigation and the family is still pressing for charges.
“To have him taken away from us like that, and no answers, no nothing… it’s just heartbreaking,” Joseph’s brother, Bryan Biename, told ABC7 Chicago.
“He did everything right. He went to school. He didn’t get in trouble with the law,” Joseph’s sister, Jeanne Joseph Kelly, said. “He worked hard for everything that he had, and that is the most heartbreaking part.”
Joseph was a teacher and assistant principal with Kipp Metro Atlanta Schools before moving to Chicago. Intrinsic High School students told CBS last year that Joseph was attentive, friendly, and invested in students’ success.
“He was a really kind and chill person… in the hall, when you get to see him and things like that, it just made your day,” student Jonathan Wilson told CBS. “His smile just saying, ‘What’s up? How are you?’ — things like that — it really made my day.”
“You could never tell me this day would come, because the way Mr. Joseph portrayed himself, and the spirit he had — he had his standards high,” student Mariya Thompson said. “Like if Mr. Joseph — if something would happen, Mr. Joseph would go above and out of his way for his students.”
