Bruce Carter's Mother Files Lawsuit In Joliet Police Shooting

JOLIET, IL —Two years after Joliet Police Detective Aaron Bandy fatally shot 38-year-old Joliet bank robber Bruce Carter inside Carter's mother house, Grace Vann has filed a federal lawsuit against the police department and Bandy for the death of her son.

Vann filed her lawsuit without retaining a licensed Illinois lawyer, court records show. The overwhelming majority of pro se lawsuits get thrown out by the judges.

The 38-year-old Carter was shot several times in his chest at the house on South Des Plaines Street. The two-story dwelling is only about two blocks away from the downtown Joliet police station.

Vann checked a box on the court document forms claiming that Detective Bandy used excessive force and violated her son's civil rights by killing him.

Two days after Carter's shooting, The Joliet Herald-News ran an article with a headline, 'They Shot An Innocent Man." After the article ran, an angry Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner issued a statement assuring the press and the community the Feb. 6, 2019 shooting was justified.

Roechner issued a statement indicating that Carter came at one of his officers with a box-cutter knife and the officer had to shoot him.

"Fearing for his life and the lives around him, the officer was forced to act and shot the suspect in order to stop the threat," Chief Roechner's statement from Feb. 8, 2019 read.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office concluded the shooting was justified.

"Detective Aaron Bandy was clearly justified in the use of deadly force," a press release from Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow stated.

Glasgow's news release concluding the shooting of Carter was justified revealed that a total of $1,173 was taken during the robbery at the First Midwest Bank "back on Feb. 6, of which $875 was recovered in Bruce Carter's possession. Based upon the review and analysis of the police reports, witness statements, forensic tests, fingerprint analysis, Illinois law concerning the use of deadly force and the force option continuum, Detective Aaron Bandy was clearly justified in the use of deadly force."

There was no Joliet police body camera footage of the deadly shooting of Carter because the Joliet Police Department has strongly resisted efforts to equip its police officers with body cameras.

However, there was video showing Carter rob the First Midwest Bank on Joliet's West Jefferson Street earlier that same day.