Quintonio LeGrier called 9-1-1 multiple times the day after Christmas complaining about an unspecified emergency, but when Officer Robert Rialmo responded to the scene, the situation ended with LeGrier and another bystander shot dead.
Rialmo told investigators that LeGrier was combative when he arrived, and fired his gun only after LeGrier attacked him. LeGrier was shot four times in the back, and another bullet hit Bettie Jones, a downstairs neighbor not involved in the incident. Both died hours later in a nearby hospital.
The families of both victims filed wrongful death civil suits against Rialmo, but this week, the officer’s lawyer announced that his client was countersuing LeGrier’s estate for emotional distress stemming from the alleged assault by LeGrier. An attorney for the family dismissed the suit as baseless and an attempt to distract from the facts of their own suit.