Family in ‘in shock, dismay, mourning’ following Illinois police shooting of man inside his home

By Rebekah Riess, Whitney Wild and Bill Kirkos, CNN

(CNN) — The family of an Illinois man shot and killed by police in his bedroom last month are calling for the officers involved to be identified and charged after authorities released portions of several body camera videos capturing the shooting.

“We never got answers. We don’t know anything,” Kennetha Barnes, the older sister of Isaac Goodlow told CNN on Saturday. “Justice for us is – the police … being charged,” Barnes said.

Goodlow, 30, died on February 3 after being shot once in the chest, Carol Stream Police Chief Donald Cummings said in a video statement Friday.

The shooting is under investigation by the Public Integrity Team of the DuPage Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigative Team, which is made up of investigators from county agencies and the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office, Carol Stream officials said in a release last month. The officers have been placed on paid administrative leave pending that investigation, which will be reviewed by the state’s attorney’s office.

In the meantime, Goodlow’s family is “devastated,” Steven Hart, an attorney for the family, told CNN’s Omar Jimenez, as they grapple with “so many questions that are unanswered.”

“They’re in shock, dismay, mourning the death of their son and brother,” Hart said.

On Friday, the Village of Carol Stream released a 33-minute video containing a compilation of police body camera videos of six Carol Stream Police Department officers. It begins with a five-minute statement from Chief Cummings, who details the incidents leading up to the shooting but notes the videos only capture the events of the shooting itself. He also noted authorities blurred the faces of the officers and Goodlow before releasing the footage.

Cummings said police responded on February 3 to reports of a domestic violence incident from Goodlow’s girlfriend, one that she said resulted in injuries. She said the “altercation” caused her to run barefoot out of the apartment the two shared, according to Cummings.

After assessing her, paramedics released her to return home. However, the door was locked, and she gave police consent to go inside, Cummings said.

For the next 45 minutes, according to police, officers on scene unsuccessfully attempted to contact Goodlow by calling his cell phone and knocking on the door to the apartment and an exterior window. Cummings said police obtained a key from an apartment building representative.

In one body camera video, an on-scene supervisor uses a key to open the apartment. Four officers can be seen in a stacked formation making entry while announcing themselves twice.

As officers clear the one-bedroom apartment, an officer can be heard asking another officer, “Go through this door here?” The other officer responds, “Yeah.”

One officer kicks in the door and almost immediately one shot is heard. One officer yells: “Oh f**k!” Another gunshot rings out, followed shortly by the sound of a taser.

The scene quickly turns chaotic. Some officers pull back from the bedroom door. One officer yells: “No! No! Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Officers appear to trip and fall as they rush to retreat in the small apartment. Shortly after, officers begin assessing one another for injuries. No officers were hurt.

According to police, two officers each shot one round. One round hit Goodlow in the chest.

Hart, the family’s attorney, told CNN on Saturday that, to them, “it looks like vigilante law enforcement.”

“Shoot first, ask questions later, guns blazing,” Hart said, “when what they expected was that the police was there to serve and protect Isaac, that they were to not enter his house without his permission at 4:15 or 4:30 in the morning, and certainly not do it behind a ballistic shield, tiptoeing in and then shooting him in the heart while he lay in his bed in his own apartment.”

In a statement, the Carol Stream Police Department confirmed the investigation remains ongoing, but said it could not provide details aside from those given in Cummings’ video statement Friday. “Lastly, as the Carol Stream Police Department has not been a part of the investigative process, we are eager to learn additional facts as to what occurred that morning,” the statement said.

The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing the “active and ongoing investigation” into the shooting.

CNN has reached out to the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter for comment.

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