- Credibility:
CHICAGO — A Chicago Police officer will be investigated after viral videos appeared to show the officer throwing a young woman to the ground after the Pride Parade, apparently causing her to have a seizure.
The videos, which have been viewed millions of times on Facebook, show a crowd of people and police officers in Boystown after the parade on Sunday. A fight breaks out among the crowd and a woman in a white shirt appears to push or move her arms at a man.
A Chicago Police officer then wraps his arm around the woman and pushes her to the ground. The woman lays on the ground, shaking, as people around her scream she’s having a seizure. Another video shows officers surrounding the woman and holding her as she jerks on the ground.
The videos were shared on Facebook, where the woman’s friends said the officer had used excessive force and the woman had been hospitalized. A friend of the woman later posted a photo of the woman in a hospital bed with what appears to be a brace on her neck.
“Thanks everybody for your prayers …,” the friend wrote on Facebook. “Lets just hope she have a speedy recovery.”
When contacted by Block Club Chicago, friends of the young woman said they did not immediately want to comment.
The woman was part of a fight and officers were trying to break it up “by subduing the woman to the ground,” said Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago Police spokesman.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of excessive force among Chicago Police officers, will look into the incident, Guglielmi said. He said the officer’s actions had been “formally documented.”
“CPD takes all force complaints seriously,” Guglielmi said.
Videos of the incident were shared online:
