The 24-year-old black man fatally shot in Beach Park Tuesday afternoon when white law enforcement officers returned fire while attempting to arrest him was identified Thursday as Brandon Gardner of Beach Park by the Lake County Coroner’s Office.
An autopsy performed on Gardner Wednesday morning found he died from a gunshot wound, officials said. Toxicology results are pending.
Coroner Howard Cooper declined to say how many times Gardner was shot, saying in an email that information was not being released “at this time.”
The shooting took place as members of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force were attempting to arrest Gardner at a home in the 38500 block of North Green Bay Road, according to Sgt. Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office.
As law enforcement officers began approaching the home, Gardner exited his vehicle armed with a semi-automatic pistol, Covelli said. He shot at the officers, and two of the officers, according to reports.
The investigation into the shooting will be conducted by the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, which will hand over its findings to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office, said Det. Heather Cognac, a task force spokeswoman.
The arrest warrant the fugitive task force had been attempting to enforce had been obtained by the Zion Police Department on Dec. 21, 2018, two days after Nicholas D. Robinson, 18, of Zion, had been found shot in the parking lot of the Woodstone Village Apartments, according to Zion Police Chief Kirk Henderson.
Robinson had been taken to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan where he was later pronounced dead, according to a news release from that time.
Henderson said multiple people fired more than one gun, but declined to provide further details, saying they “will have to come out at trial.”
The homicide was investigated by Zion police and the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, which obtained arrest warrants for three other people in connection to the death.
Quantell L. Williams, who was 22 at the time of the shooting; Eric K. Whitaker, who was 24, and Brandyn Q.T. Jones, who was 19, all of Zion, were charged with murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to court records.
Whitaker turned himself in at the Zion Police Department on Dec. 26, 2018, according to Henderson. Williams turned himself into the Lake County jail on Jan. 3, 2019.
Jones was booked into the jail on Feb. 6, 2019, according to jail records. All three were in custody at the jail on Wednesday.
Clyde McLemore, the founder of the Lake County chapter of Black Lives Matter, said he has not received any information contrary to what police have said so far. McLemore, who has worked with Robinson’s family since his December 2018 death, said he has spoken to at least one person who was at the house Tuesday as well as the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
McLemore said the timing following the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis may have residents on edge, but he’s encouraging people to “get the facts before they react.”
“This younger generation is sick and tired, not willing to go to jail,” McLemore said. “They were willing to die. … This guy was wrong, but what if he was right.”
The two officers involved in Tuesday’s fatal shooting include a Lake County sheriff’s deputy who was taken to an area hospital as a precaution, and a McHenry County deputy who had a laceration to the arm, Covelli said. It was not immediately clear what caused the laceration.
Both deputies have been released from the hospital, Wauconda Police Det. Heather Cognac, a spokeswoman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, said Wednesday.
Several other people, including a child, had been in the home at the time of the shooting, Covelli said. None of them were injured.
