What happened in Fermilab shooting?

On Feb. 18, an off-duty suburban police officer opened fire on six youths in their car in a Fermilab parking lot after an apparently minor traffic collision. A back seat passenger was shot and has filed a federal lawsuit against a West Chicago police officer and the City of West Chicago. Several of the occupants of the car have given their accounts of the occurrence to the media.

Yet neither the police agency nor the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office has provided an account of the incident. What’s the holdup? It should have taken no more than a couple of days to interview the participants and investigate the scene. The longer the state’s attorney remains silent on this matter, the more likely that suspicions of cover-up will creep into the public dialogue.

Edward Butts

Geneva