The Chicago Police Department is investigating one of its sergeants after a video posted online shows him threatening to knock out a teenager’s father before apparently striking or knocking a phone from the hand of a girl who was recording the off-duty confrontation.
A CPD spokesperson confirmed Monday afternoon that an investigation is underway but said it has not yet been determined whether the matter will be handled by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the city’s external police oversight agency.
The video, which was posted to the Clearing/Garfield Ridge Community Page on Facebook, contains extensive profanity and has been circulating rapidly on social media. We’ve included the footage at the end of this story.
It begins during a confrontation between the off-duty officer and a group of young people. A young man can be heard explaining that he and his companions had been involved in an altercation with another group. He says they are willing to speak with police if officers are called to the scene.
The off-duty cop, who is identified in the video as Jeremy, responds that he does not know what happened but says younger children had accused the group of threatening them.
“Yeah, no. I don’t know what the [expletive] happened. You got a bunch of little kids saying you guys are threatening ’em,” he says. “The kids are [expletive] 12, 13.”
One of the young men responds that he understands the concern, saying the people in his group are about 15 or 16, but he acknowledges that even that is a significant age difference.
The situation quickly escalates.
At one point, one of the young men appears to call his parents. Jeremy responds with threats to knock out the boy’s father and the teenager. A woman is heard repeatedly screaming at Jeremy and eventually persuades him to walk away.
But Jeremy turns back toward the group and approaches the person who has been recording the incident. The phone, still recording, is suddenly knocked to the ground, and the video becomes chaotic. The footage does not clearly show whether someone was struck or if the phone was slapped to the ground.
When the video resumes, a girl quickly walks away from Jeremy, holding the phone and crying, saying that she is scared.
“Ow, my head,” she says as the video ends. “[Expletive]. No, bro, this [expletive] hurts.”
CWBChicago is not publishing the officer’s full name because his identity has not been conclusively confirmed. Based on information provided by a source considered reliable, public records indicate that the officer has been with CPD for nearly 23 years and earned approximately $142,000 last year.
