Bolingbrook, IL. (ECWd) –
During Trustee comments at the DuPage Township Board of Trustees meeting on November 20, 2018, Trustee Benford closed her comments by asking that people pray for the victims of the shooting at Mercy Hospital. She stated that her sorority sister, Nichelle Payne Bush, had taken a picture with a shooting victim (Dr. Tara O’Neal) just an hour earlier, and she heard her being shot and killed in the next room. The quote from Nichelle Payne Bush was: “killed a few feet from the room I was in with a patient”.
After the meeting, Trustee Burgess called it a false claim because the doctor was shot in the parking lot, said she lied about it, and called us several names before angrily storming out of the building. Several other women chimed in supporting Burgess’ statements and said we should report on the alleged lies. When questioned the woman had no proof to the claims being made and when one suggested we fact check their position by watching the news, I was advised to watch CNN by one woman, as if that was going to provide any such proof.
We researched the issue and found Benford’s comments to be absolutely truthful and Burgess’ and others comment on the matter to be a shameful attempt at using a tragedy such as domestic violence and a mass shooting to malign truthful prayer requests. He and the other woman supporting his comments obviously did not research anything prior to commenting to us, and we suggest they provide proof to support their lies.
Video of Trustee Benford’s comments below, and screenshots of Benford’s sorority sister’s account of the incident, which included hearing the shots fired (here and here), and stating that her co-worker, Dr. O’Neal, was killed in the parking lot just “a few feet” from the room, which we understand was next to the parking lot, where about 10 feet separated the shooting from where Bush was located.
“I can still hear those resounding Bullets.. one after the other sounding like cannons-10 feet from us.”
Even more concerning is the claims by the Supervisors wife that the comments from the trustee were nothing more than her grandstanding for attention. We found this situation to be an example of how low some people will go in order to defelct from the issue at hand, malfeasance by the Supervisor.
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