Five Evanston police officers placed on administrative leave after a downtown shooting incident are now scheduled to return to work next week.
The officers shot and killed bank robber Kevin Ross after he refused to drop his gun when police confronted him outside Bennison’s Bakery on Dec. 16.
Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott says that it could be months before a final report on the incident is issued by state police investigators, but that the investigators have told Evanston officials that there is no evidence the police acted improperly in their response to the situation.
Officers are routinely placed on leave after any officer-involved shooting incident.
Parrott says the officers still need to be interviewed by supervisors to make sure they’re emotionally prepared to return to duty in the wake of the incident, but that that process is expected to be completed by early next week.
Police say Ross had just robbed the Chase Bank branch at 901 Grove St. when the confrontation took place, and they found $3,000 in funds taken from the bank in his possession after the shooting.
Officers searching a storage locker in his condominium building later found ID’s from the two brothers killed in the tobacco shop murders downtown last summer, making him the primary suspect in that case, and the FBI has linked Ross to at least four additional bank robberies, including one last September at the same Chase Bank branch.