Chicago: Illinois state police on Tuesday were investigating a white officer over the fatal shooting of a "brave" black security guard who had apprehended a suspected gunman at a bar outside Chicago, officials said.
The officer was placed on administrative leave after the incident, which took place in the early hours of Sunday at Manny's Blue Room Lounge in the town of Robbins, 32 kilometers south of the Midwestern city.
The security guard, 26-year-old Jemel Roberson, was working at the bar, and intervened when an argument erupted and someone started shooting.
Several local police forces responded to the incident, in which four people were wounded, including the gunman. None had life-threatening injuries.
A police officer from the nearby village of Midlothian arrived at the scene and shot Roberson, despite the guard wearing a uniform with "security" emblazoned on it, according to witnesses.
Roberson "had somebody on the ground with his knee in back, with his gun in his back, like, 'Don't move,'" witness Adam Harris told Chicago television station WGN.
"Everybody was screaming out, 'Security!' He was a security guard," Harris said, but police "saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him." Roberson died of his injuries at a hospital.
The officer under investigation has not been formally identified, but a clerk at the department confirmed the officer was white, and was placed on administrative leave pending the inquiry.
"Jemel Roberson was a brave man who was doing his best to end an active shooter situation," Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said in a statement Tuesday.