There are conflicting reports about the shooting of a Black man by a police officer earlier this month in Rockford.
Nenye Uche is the lawyer representing the man who was shot, Tyris Jones. Uche held a news conference in front of City Hall calling for increased transparency from the Winnebago-Boone County Integrity Task Force. The group is investigating the shooting by Rockford Police officer Dominik McNiece.
“We want to see the records. We want to see the video.” Uche continued, “And I could say, right now based on the affidavits we're watching, and we're looking at and you're going to see, it's not looking very good in terms of what happened. This wasn't justice, this is wrong.”
According to three signed affidavits from witnesses, Jones did not approach another vehicle nor was he armed. They also say there was no instance in which any police officer was in danger when Jones fled the scene. One testimony says that there were two police officers in front of McNiece when he discharged the five shots.
Rebecca Jackson, Jones’s mother, is calling on the community to collaborate with the investigation as much as possible.
Jackson said,“I just ask if anybody was on the scene that day and has not come forward and knows what happened and seen it that you just come forward to help the process along so that we can get the answers that we're looking for.”
- Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco is a 2020 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project which is a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms.
Jones is currently recovering and in custody.
