The family of Mary Alice Love, the Black woman shot and killed by Mundelein police in May, renewed its calls for criminal charges against the officer involved after viewing additional body cam footage and listening to 911 call recordings on Monday afternoon.
According to family attorney Kevin O’Connor, Love’s relatives were able to view the additional footage as part of an agreement with the village of Mundelein. During a news conference Monday, O’Connor said a potential civil case could be avoided “if the village is going to start cooperating,” describing the agreement for the family to view the video as a first step.
The family also planned to attend Monday’s Village Board meeting to call for the termination of the officer who killed Love, describing them as a danger to the community.
On May 11, Mundelein police officers responded to the home of Love’s mother, Jeffry, for calls of a woman in a mental health crisis. In a video released by the department that includes body-cam footage, officers are brought into the house by Jeffry Love. Mary Alice Love can be seen sitting outside through a glass sliding door.
One officer notes she has a knife, and when they try to move Jeffry Love, she falls back. Mary Alice Love is seen getting up and yelling. She slides open the door, and an officer fires four times, killing her.
O’Connor has argued Love’s death was a fatal mishandling of the situation, including a failure to follow crisis-intervention training and de-escalation techniques.
Previously, O’Connor has said that because of the reflectiveness of the rear door’s glass, Love could only see her mother was being “tackled.” While she was holding a knife, she “never pointed it at anybody” and was shot before she entered the house.
Late last month, the shooting was ruled a homicide by a Lake County coroner’s inquest. This designation does not necessarily carry criminal charges, although O’Connor praised the decision. Immediately afterwards, family members met with Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart, which left them “very happy,” O’Connor said Monday.
If criminal charges were to move forward, they would be handled by the State’s Attorney’s Office, O’Connor said. There was no news of charges as of Monday, and O’Connor said it would be “on (Rinehart’s) desk within the next week or two,” again repeating his call for criminal charges.
“I’ve now just watched one of the worst cases I’ve seen,” he said. “They need to bring charges.”
Love’s father and sister both spoke during the news conference, criticizing the police officers for escalating a mental health crisis.
“This should not happen to any other family,” Love’s sister, Bertrand Love-Wakaba, said. “We need accountability for the wrong choices. Justice should not even be a question.”
Bishop Tavis Grant, a spiritual representative for the family, criticized the officers for not utilizing non-lethal methods, describing the shooting as a “miscarriage of justice.”
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“We’re not going to stop, we’re not going to be silent and we’re not going away until we get justice for Mary Alice Love,” Grant said.