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A 26-year-old armed bouncer on Sunday was shot and killed by a police officer responding to a shooting at an Illinois nightclub, according to a report from Chicago’s ABC7. Police initially arrived at Manny’s Blue Room at about 4 a.m. after receiving a call claiming that shots had been fired at the venue. But when one unnamed officer entered the bar, he allegedly saw bouncer Jemel Roberson holding a gun and fatally shot him. “Upon arrival officers learned there were several gunshot victims inside the bar,” the Midlothian police chief said in a statement cited by ABC7. “A Midlothian Officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an Officer involved shooting. The subject the Officer shot was later pronounced deceased at an area hospital.”
Witnesses of the shooting, however, tell a different story. “Everybody was screaming out ‘Security!’ He was a security guard,” witness Adam Harris told WGN-TV. “And they still did their job and saw a black man with a gun and basically killed him.” Friends noted that Roberson’s death is especially tragic because he wanted to become a police officer. “He was getting ready to train and do all that stuff, so the very people he wanted to be family with, took his life,” Rev. Patricia Hill told WGN-TV.