Protesters interrupt Flossmoor forum after 64-year-old woman shot dead by police

FLOSSMOOR, Ill. (WLS) — There were tense moments on Saturday afternoon in Flossmoor months after the police shooting of Madeline Miller.

The 64-year-old was shot and killed in July after police said she charged at officers with a knife while they responded to a domestic dispute.

In an attempt to move forward, Flossmoor police and village leaders are facilitating conversations with residents.

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“We are a community that’s hurting and we have to move forward and have an open dialogue to gather ideas from our residents,” said Flossmoor Police Chief Tod Kamleiter.

A small group of protesters rallied outside Saturday’s event at Parker Junior High.

They believe Miller was having a mental crisis when she was killed. They’re demanding the officers involved to be fired and a change to who responds to certain emergency calls.

“Which would bring mental health professions… a medic on site to these mental health crisis calls to prevent police killings from happening,” said Casey, a demonstrator.

Protesters interrupted parts of Saturday’s meeting while other residents went into breakout rooms to discuss community policing.

“We seemed to have the start of what could be productive conversations,” said Christina Roberts, who participated in the community meeting.

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Lorraine Bowman also participated.

“One of the things we talked about in our session was how much training are the police getting to learn to de-escalate different situations,” she said.

Kamleiter said the hope is to have more of these meetings and conversations with the community in the near future. Some of the people there Saturday welcome that idea and said they’re optimistic this could lead to change.

“It could … I think we have a good community that wants to change and we celebrate diversity here,” Roberts said.

Illinois State Police are still investigating the use of force from the July shooting as the Flossmoor police chiefs said the department continues to have conversations with Miller’s family.

“They’re difficult conversations, but they’re necessary, so we’ll continue that and have open conversations with them,” Kamleiter said.

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