Joliet police won’t yet release body camera video of man shot twice by officers

The Joliet Police Department has not yet released body camera footage of police shooting of a 31-year-old man, who reportedly fired a gun in the incident, because the case is still under investigation by a task force.

The Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force has completed “the bulk” of the investigation into the April 8 shooting of Jamal Smith, 31, of Joliet in the 900 block of Lois Place, said Ken Kroll, a spokesman for the multiagency task force who also serves as Romeoville’s police chief.

When officers went to the location and approached an apartment building, Smith had “stepped outside and fired a handgun,” Kroll said.

Smith was one of two plaintiffs who filed a federal lawsuit against outgoing Joliet Mayor Robert O’Dekirk in 2020 over an altercation at a protest that led to a $93,000 settlement payout from the city.

As of Tuesday, Smith, who was shot once in the leg and once in the neck, was still at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Kroll said. The task force was not privy to any changes in his medical condition, Kroll said.

On Monday, Joliet police officials declined to release police body camera videos and other records regarding the incident in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from the Herald-News.

“This shooting is still under active investigation by the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force. This incident has been extensively covered by the media and releasing this information would hinder a thorough investigation into this incident,” Joliet police officials said in their response to the FOIA requests.

When told Wednesday that the task force said it completed the majority of its investigation into the incident, Joliet police Sgt. Dwayne English said that the records requested will be released in the near future.

Kroll said the task force anticipates forensic lab results and medical results to continue coming in and there may be additional follow-up work requested by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office.

“Once this report is fully completed it will be turned over to the state’s attorney’s office for their review,” Kroll said.

Further details have not yet been released about the events surrounding the shooting.

In the police department’s original statement on the incident, officers received a call at 4:47 a.m. April 8 for a possible domestic disturbance near an apartment building in the 900 block of Lois Place.

When officers arrived on at the location, they encountered a man “actively firing a handgun,” police said.

Officers “discharged their weapons, striking the suspect.”

Kroll said Wednesday that there were several 911 calls that prompted officers’ response to the incident, none of which “came from a participant in the incident.”