Wall Work
Impacted by the many recent police shootings that were not clearly necessary, I thought more deeply about my grandfather, Emerson Combes. "Shade" represents the unresolved mystery of his death. He, like many contemporary citizens of Chicago, Illinois, was confronted in 1930 by three police officers. He was likely not pure of character, somewhat shady, and he did have a gun. There was no clear conclusion of what really happened that night. I can only ponder based on family tales and an old newspaper report. Whether the gunshot wounds were self-inflicted, as the police reported, or if they came from close-range shots fired by the officers who had blinded him with flashlights in the night, remains unknown. There were no witnesses and the coroner only reported serious body damage from close-range gunfire.