A Chicago police oversight agency is investigating an officer who was seen on cellphone video hitting a 16-year-old boy with a pair of handcuffs at the Roosevelt Red Line station.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the incident occurred around 6:50 p.m. on Nov. 25, when officers tried to apprehend the teen who apparently matched the description of a robbery suspect. Officers claimed that they had to perform a “take down” after the teen allegedly “threatened” officers.
The teen was arrested, but was ultimately released without being charged after officers did not get any statements from the victims of the alleged robbery.
However the teen, who has been identified as Skyler Miller, says that it not what happened the night he was detained.
“Two officers came up and and one threw me against the wall and they tried to put the cuffs on me,” he said. “They didn’t tell me why. They didn’t tell me what I was arrested for.”
Cellphone footage captured by bystanders shows one of the officers striking Miller multiple times in the head with handcuffs clenched in his fists. That same officer is seen later in video footage threatening the protesting crowd with the handcuffs still clutched in his fists, the Sun-Times notes.
Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability is taking a look at the officer’s behavior, with a police spokesperson adding, “This was an incident where an individual was resisting arrest…A use of force investigation has been opened into the Officers’ actions by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) to establish if policies were violated and CPD will fully cooperate with COPAs investigation.”
Meanwhile, Miller says he intends to file a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department