Protests in Oak Lawn after video shows officers punching 17-year-old; police chief suggests deadly force was justified
About 120 people gathered Thursday afternoon outside the Oak Lawn police station to protest after a video shared on social media this week showed Oak Lawn police officers repeatedly punching a 17-year-old.
In the video, an officer can be seen repeatedly punching the teen in the head as he is held down by another officer, who punches him in the leg. The teenager, of Bridgeview, is hospitalized, his family’s attorney said at a news conference Thursday.
“Officers are allowed to use force to some degree, but they’re not allowed to use excessive force. And this was extremely excessive and savage and malicious,” said Zaid Abdallah, the teen’s family attorney, earlier in the day. “This is not a situation where they were fighting somebody. … You can hear the wailing and crying.”
In the video, the person who recorded it can be heard saying: “Why are they beating him like this? This a little ol’ boy.”
The altercation took place near 95th Street and McVicker Avenue, police said.
“The subject refused to listen to verbal commands which resulted in a physical confrontation with two officers,” the police statement said.
Oak Lawn police Chief Daniel Vittorio said officers involved have not been placed on leave and he suggested they would have been in their right to use deadly force. Vittorio said responding officers feared the teen had a firearm in an “accessory bag” draped over his right shoulder.
“Once they feared there was a weapon in there, it was a deadly force incident,” he said.
Vittorio, speaking at a news conference following the protest, could not fully explain how officers determined the gun, a Raven Arms P25 with an ammunition clip and three rounds, was in the bag before the teen was cuffed.
“He retained constant control of that bag” even after being pinned to the ground, the chief said. He said the teen was attempting to reach into the bag as officers were subduing him, and “he doesn’t stop resisting till he’s Tased.”
Police said the car was initially stopped when an officer on patrol detected an “odor of burnt cannabis emanating from the vehicle.”
Officers in the village are not equipped with body-worn cameras, but Vittorio provided a narrative as dash camera recordings of the initial traffic stop and subsequent foot chase were shown.
A back-seat passenger was asked to step out and was patted down, but when the teen who was injured stepped out of the vehicle he ran off, the video shows.
Once he was apprehended at 95th and McVicker, officers used “control tactics” including leg strikes to subdue him, Vittorio said.
An officer was injured and transported to a hospital, police said. Vittorio did not have an update on the officer’s condition but said he was released Wednesday night.
Abdallah, along with representatives of Chicago’s chapter of the Council On American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights advocacy group, said at the news conference that the officers’ actions were unjustifiable police brutality, regardless of why the car the teenager had been riding in was pulled over or if a gun was found after he was apprehended.
Abdallah said the teen suffered a broken nose, bruising across his face and body, and internal bleeding near his brain and forehead after officers punched his head, slammed it on the pavement, hit his body and crushed his bones once he had been subdued.
The teenager’s mother, Dena Natour, described her son as a “good, respectful kid.” He works at a barbershop, is entering his senior year at Stagg High School and doesn’t get into trouble, she said.
“He’s really upset and he doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s very scared right now,” Natour said.
Muhammad Sankari, lead organizer for the Arab American Action Network, said at the afternoon protest that the police officers’ actions represent “a classic case of racial profiling and brutality” and he demanded they be fired.
“The police do not have any reason, any excuse to beat anybody up,” Sankari said.
“They clearly have a racial bias and can’t do their jobs right,” he said of the officers.
Talking to reporters at the protest, Natour said her son “never caused any problems” and that her son was beaten “for no apparent reason”
“It’s attempted murder,” she said.
Vittorio, asked to respond to calls the officers be fired, said an internal investigation is being conducted. “Let the investigation take its course,” he said.
Asked whether police still intended to charge the teen, Vittorio emphatically said, “Oh yes.”
He said police still need to interview the teen.
As the protest wound down there appeared to be a verbal clash between protesters and police stationed on Raymond Avenue just south of the station.
Several heavily armed Oak Lawn officers, some carrying assault-type rifles, rushed from the north to support officers who were gathered by traffic barricades set up in street.
Some protesters with megaphones urged calm and for people to leave.
“If you respect the family we gotta get out of here,” one man shouted. “We don’t want anyone arrested”
Ultimately, more than 20 police officers stood along the barricades.
A man named Andrew who shared videos with the Tribune, said he saw the teen run across the street before police officers took him down in front of a gas station.
“The kid was down on the ground, not moving, hands behind his back, and one of the cops grabbed his hair, slammed his face into the ground, and he started beating on him,” said Andrew, who declined to share his full name for fear of police retaliation.
“I don’t know what the kid did exactly, but I know (the alleged crime) didn’t deserve that,” Andrew said.
No firearms were discharged during the arrest, Oak Lawn police spokesperson Gerald Vetter told the Tribune.
