Gift cards for guns raffled at fundraiser for Chicago cop who fatally shot 2

Chicago activists are decrying a fundraiser in which organizers raffled off a pair of gun gift certificates in support of embattled Chicago police Officer Robert Rialmo, who shot and killed a mentally unstable teenager and an innocent bystander during a controversial 2015 encounter.

Supporters donated $20 for admission to the Friday benefit held at the Near West Side headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents rank-and-file Chicago officers.

They also were able to buy raffle tickets for items including an iPad and gift certificates for a Glock handgun and an AR-15 rifle.

Proceeds went to Rialmo as he fights to keep his job almost four years after fatally shooting a bat-wielding Quintonio LeGrier, 19, and Bettie Jones, a 55-year-old neighbor who was hit by the officer’s errant gunfire in the vestibule of the West Side home.

“It’s insulting to the families, and it’s insulting to the community,” said Matthew Harrington, who joined other Freedom First International activists protesting outside the FOP headquarters ahead of the event. “They’re auctioning off guns to help defend an officer involved in shooting two people, in a city that has thousands of people shot each year.”

Rialmo was placed on desk duty after the Dec. 26, 2015, shooting in the 4700 block of West Erie, stripped of police powers and put on no-pay status after a December 2017 bar fight that resulted in misdemeanor battery charges of which he was later acquitted.

The fundraiser was organized by several of Rialmo’s fellow officers and not officially sponsored by the FOP, according to Rialmo’s attorney, Joel Brodsky. An FOP spokesman declined to comment.

“[Rialmo] was very appreciative,” Brodsky said. “Everybody’s got bills to pay.”

About 100 people attended, including Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) and Rialmo himself, according to Brodsky.

“It’s like the organizers told me: ‘If we wanted to be insensitive or insulting, we would have raffled off a baseball bat,’ ” Brodsky said. “Their intention was to raffle off something people would want to buy.”

Brodsky noted that Chicago officers are responsible for purchasing their own duty weapons.

“If this were a carpenters’ fundraiser, they would’ve raffled off a toolkit. These are people who have to have guns as part of their job,” he said.

Anti-violence activist Tio Hardiman said he didn’t have a problem with the gift certificates for legal weapons — though it “wouldn’t be the best choice of a prize,” he said — but argued the event sent the wrong message to the community.

“There’s nothing wrong with trying to support one of your comrades, but if you have one that’s fallen out of line on several occasions, why cosign on that? We’re working hard to heal Chicago, and we need a new outlook with the FOP as well,” Hardiman said.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended that CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson move to fire Rialmo for the shooting, but Johnson concluded that Rialmo’s actions were “justified and within department policy.”

Rialmo was never criminally charged in the shooting. Jones’ estate reached a $16 million settlement with the city before heading to a civil trial. And an eight-day trial ended in confusion last June when a jury awarded the LeGrier estate $1.05 million in damages that were immediately nullified when the jurors said, effectively, that Rialmo was justified when he opened fire.

“Every single time, when all the facts are examined by an unbiased trier of fact… he’s always been found to have been justified,” Brodsky said. “He’s not happy he had to do it.”

The Chicago Police Board, which metes out discipline in cases of potential misconduct, has yet to rule on Rialmo’s future in the department. A hearing is slated for next month.