Ferguson controversy prompts protests in Chicago shootings

There is no doubt in Tamara Ball’s mind her son was murdered during a confrontation with Chicago police officers in July.

Ball, the biological mother of 16-year-old Warren Robinson, claims witnesses saw him with his hands in the air before he was fatally shot.

“The lady said when she saw my son, my son’s hands were in the air… he had already been shot in the leg. She said he was on his knees begging for his life,” Ball told me.

But Police said the teen crawled from under a car and pointed a .387 caliber semiautomatic pistol at two police officers.

Presumably, the Independent Police Review Authority — the agency charged with investigating police-involved shootings — will track down those witnesses.

But it can take up to 18 months before IPRA renders a decision on whether or not police were justified when they shot this teenager multiple times.

Meanwhile, speculations about how these suspects died further poisons the relationship between police officers and the African-American community.

“It was an unlawful death. I believe the police department is at fault and I also think it was a personal kill, that’s a 16-year-old boy,” Ball told me.

IPRA and the Chicago Police Department would not comment on pending investigations.

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