Suburban Cop Cleared

It was DuPage after all:

• A federal jury today cleared a former Glen Ellyn police officer of wrongdoing, finding he didn't use excessive force when he fatally shot a naked College of DuPage student after responding to a domestic battery call in 2006.

  Jurors deliberated for less than an hour.

  [...] Bradley testified that he fired the fatal shot after Uwumargogie straddled him and repeatedly punched him in the face. Bradley, now a state trooper, said he feared he was about to lose consciousness.

Bradley was being beaten into unconsciousness and that would have left him at the mercy of a madman with his service weapon. It also would have left any other responding officers exposed to untold dangers of responding to a mental now armed with a pistol.

A jury that actually sees sense in Illinois is a nice change. And while we don't envy Trooper Bradley the stress he went through, we're glad he's still among the living.