By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo is reacting to this week’s incident of a Chicago Police Officer being severely beaten by a man on the west side, who said her fear of being in the headlines kept her from shooting the man.
Angelo told “The Big John and Ray Show” on WLS that the incident, which happened on Wednesday at Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue, is a perfect example of increased scrutiny on police causing an officer to refrain from taking a legitimate step to protect herself and the community. “This is exactly what’s going on right now” said Angelo, “In the deep recesses, maybe not that deep, of these officers minds, is that next You Tube video or that next headline.”
Superintendent Eddie Johnson told the officer’s story on Thursday at City Hall, at an awards ceremony for heroic police and firefighters. He says the 43 year old female officer is a 17 year veteran who works in the Austin district. Johnson she and two other officers were injured fighting with the 28 year old man who had apparently just crashed his car, and appeared to be high on the drug PCP.
Johnson said the man repeatedly smashed the female officer’s face into the pavement until she was unconscious, and then says when he visited the officer in the hospital, “She looked at me and said she thought she was gonna die, and she knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to because she didn’t want her family or the department to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news.”
Dean Angelo told WLS “The non lethal options are exhausted with no impact. The officer tasered this guy 20 times, directly placing the device on his body for an extended amount of time and had no impact. Exhausted all of his pepper mace. And he (perpetrator) continues to attack. This is the type of individual that we’re dealing with out there that most of the crying parts of our society that are calling for police reform have no idea exist, that our officers deal with each and every day.”
The three officers who were injured are being treated at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The suspect is under arrest after being treated and released at Loretto Hospital.
@ 2016 WLS-AM News
