Editor’s note: Otis Grigsby’s version of events differ from that put out by the media and Illinois State Police.

The Herald News
May 1, 2008

JOLIET — A correctional officer shot while reportedly fighting with state police last week died Monday.

Lernard Grigsby, 48, of Crest Hill, was pronounced dead at 2:26 a.m. at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, Will County Coroner Patrick K. O’Neil reported.

State troopers were called around 4 a.m. Thursday to the correctional officers’ dormitory at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill. Trooper Mark Dorencz said a sergeant and a trooper responded and spoke to a woman about a “domestic disturbance.”

The pair then spoke to Grigsby, who allegedly attacked them. He struck the sergeant and the trooper’s heads and tried to take the sergeant’s handgun.

“Fearing for his life and safety, the sergeant shot (Grigsby) twice in the torso,” Dorencz said.

All three were taken to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center. The sergeant and trooper were treated for head, neck and facial injuries and released from the hospital Thursday afternoon.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Derek Schnapp said the correctional officers’ building is on Stateville property outside the prison walls.

“It’s a co-ed dorm where officers or staff can live or stay during their workweek so they’re close to the facility,” he said. Schnapp described the building, which was built in 1969, as a dormitory with “bare-bones” furnishings and amenities.

Grigsby was hired as a correctional officer in September 1993 at the Joliet Correctional Center on Collins Street. He transferred to Stateville after that prison closed in 2002.

The state police’s Division of Internal Investigations is investigating. Grigsby’s relationship with the woman involved in the dispute is not known.

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