A veteran Chicago police sergeant was caught on video threatening a group of teenagers during an off-duty confrontation in Garfield Ridge, then allegedly punched a 17-year-old girl in the head when she kept recording him, prosecutors say. CWBChicago first reported on the confrontation and published the video on August 10, the day after it happened. Now, charges are filed.
Jeremy Sikorski, 45, a 23-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, was released to await trial after Judge James Costello declined to hold him in custody, court records show.
Prosecutors said the girl and her friends had been at a park when a group of younger teenagers began “harassing” them. In response, the older teens kicked one of the younger teens in the “lower stomach/sex organ area,” according to a detention filing. Sikorski and two other men attending a barbecue in the 5100 block of South Melvina Avenue confronted the older teens when they passed through a nearby alley, sparking a verbal altercation that the 17-year-old began recording on her phone.
The video shows Sikorski yelling at and threatening the boys, at one point telling one of them he would “knock your [expletive] [expletive] out” while raising his fist toward him, prosecutors said. He also threatened to beat up one of the teens’ parents.
“Yeah, no. I don’t know what the [expletive] happened. You got a bunch of little kids saying you guys are threatening ’em,” he said. “The kids are [expletive] 12, 13.”
The teenagers appear to remain relatively calm during the confrontation. One tells Sikorski that he understood Sikorski’s concerns, explaining that the people in his group are about 15 or 16. After about two minutes, Sikorski began walking away. He then stopped, turned around, and walked toward the girl, who continued recording.
Prosecutors allege Sikorski punched the girl in the head with a closed fist, causing her phone to fall to the ground. He then kicked the phone, which struck her in the ankle, according to prosecutors. The girl’s mother and another person called 911.
The phone continued recording, but the footage becomes difficult to follow after it hits the ground. As it ends, the girl is walking quickly away from Sikorski while holding the phone and crying.
“Ow, my head,” she says as the video ends. “[Expletive]. No, bro, this [expletive] hurts.”
The girl went to Rush Hospital several days later with a chief complaint of a head injury accompanied by blurry vision, headaches and dizziness. Prosecutors said she was diagnosed with acute concussion syndrome.
Sikorski surrendered at the Central (1st) District station in the South Loop last Tuesday. He is charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery in a public place.
