IRATE PROTESTERS RIP KILLING BY OFFICER

Sergeant Justified, Police Say Of Incident

Angry and sometimes raucous demonstrators descended Wednesday on an
alderman's office and taunted police in response to the fatal
shooting of a West Side man by a Chicago police sergeant.

Shouts of "murderers!" echoed during the hourlong march, but police
spokeswoman Monique Bond said a police roundtable discussion
determined the unidentified Harrison District sergeant acted
appropriately because he "feared for his safety" when shooting Jovan
Walker, 24, about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Bond said Walker, of the 700 block of North Trumbull Avenue had been
pointing a gun at the officer in a vacant lot near the 1200 block of
North Monticello Avenue. A .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun was
found near Walker's body; four bags of crack cocaine also were found
on him, she said.

Records show that Walker has been arrested at least eight times since
1999, mostly for drug possession, and has been in jail twice this year.

Though the Cook County medical examiner's office said Wednesday that
Walker was not shot in the back, the demonstrators insisted he was
shot in the back while raising his hands in surrender.

The shooting aftermath shows a tenuous relationship between police
and the Humboldt Park community, where more police are often
requested but mistrust still exists, said Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th).

"A lot of the people who hang out on the street are anti-police all
the time," he said. "The irony for me is that residents there are
always calling me, trying to get the police over there because it's a
high-crime area."

Led by Fred Hampton Jr., son of slain Black Panther Fred Hampton,
about 20 protesters gathered around 12:30 p.m. near Division Street
and Monticello Avenue, a block from the site of the shooting. Among
the crowd were the dead man's friends--including his girlfriend, who
is two months' pregnant--and people who did not know him, like
Hampton, but said they were reacting to police violence.

Police have shot 15 people so far in 2006, seven of whom were killed,
said Bond, the police spokeswoman.

Walking with their hands in the air, members of the group marched
about four blocks east to the office of Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th).

They packed Ocasio's office for about 15 minutes, demanding to see
the alderman--who was not there--shouting, sometimes with profanity,
and repeating their chants of "Murder!" At least five squad cars
arrived, and officers camped outside the alderman's office as
protesters taunted them and cautioned each other that they could be
shot next. No arrests were made.

But in fact, the demonstrators were at the wrong alderman's office;
the shooting occurred in Burnett's ward. Officers went to Burnett's
office, but the protesters never arrived, Burnett's office said.

Still, Burnett said he hoped to help bridge the divide between police
and people who question the shooting. He said he called police and
was assured Walker was not shot in the back.

"Whenever people say something like this, the first person I want to
hear from is the family, not a whole bunch of people who don't live
in the neighborhood and who weren't even there," he said. "I
understand people being hurt and concerned. I just hope other people
aren't trying to use this incident for their own personal gain. There
are people involved who loved someone and lost someone."

First Deputy Supt. Dana Starks said police plan to reach out to the
community to further explain the incident.

"I know there have been some good inroads with the residents in that
community," he said.