I saw the link to this video at Vikings War Cry a couple of days ago, and to be honest, I'm not quite sure what to say about it.

Otis Grigsby is a defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings, signed in the middle of the 2007 season from the Carolina Panthers' practice squad.  His uncle, Lernard Grigsby, was shot and killed by Illinois State Police officers on the morning of 28 April.  The official story is that the officers were called to a dormitory at the State Correctional Center near Joliet.  Lernard Grigsby was employed as a corrections officer at that building.

According to the story, Grigsby attacked the two officers that were called to investigate a disturbance at the facility, and the officers shot and killed him during that struggle.  If you watch the video made by Otis Grigsby above, however, he has a significantly different take on what happened.  Otis says:

“They [the officers] responded to a domestic call, and basically, they wanted him [Lernard] to do something that he didn’t want to do, which was come outside. He wanted them to come in, and they dragged him outside. They beat him. There’s evidence of this because he had internal bleeding.”

...

“They beat him, and when he fought back, [one of the officers] shot him in his back. Shot him multiple times. My uncle was unarmed and unable to defend himself from gunshots, just like anyone else. Somehow, he made it to the hospital. Honestly, I really thought he was going to survive, I thought that he would make it. But…that didn’t work out.”

Now, I don't know what transpired on the morning of 28 April.  I'm not a policeman or a lawyer or anything like that.  I can't say with any degree of certainty whether the official account is correct or whether Otis Grigsby's video testimonial is correct or if the truth lies somewhere in between.

I simply wanted to repost this to get Otis' message out there.  The truth, whatever it is, about the death of Lernard Grigsby needs to come out somehow.  Like I said, maybe the truth is already out there, I don't know for sure. . .but if it's not, the Grigsby family deserves justice, just like every other American family does.