Demand Accountability: Chicago-Area Family Seeks…
Source: Scott Olson / Getty
Somebody has a LOT of explaining to do!
The household of a 42-year-old Evanston, Illinois lady named Felicea Williams has taken legal motion in a determined attempt to uncover what really occurred during her encounter with police in an incident they imagine could contain violent brutality. According to reporting from the Evanston RoundTable, Williams now lies in a coma after being arrested on January 5 following an alleged altercation with local officers. The newly filed lawsuit facilities on acquiring public data tied to her arrest, including video footage from physique cameras and any public cameras which can have captured the occasions of that eventing. Williams’ kinfolk say this data has been frustratingly tough to access.
Williams, suffered extreme mind injury following the incident that started with a disturbance close to the Chicago–Evanston border. What unfolded between that initial encounter and her current unresponsive state stays unclear, and that lack of readability is strictly what has fueled the household’s suspicions and legal push.
Says attorney Victor Henderson:
“We got nothing, nothing, nothing from the City of Evanston,” Henderson said. “We filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to get the information, so Ms. [Jacqueline Hoffman, Williams’ mother] could find out what happened to her daughter.”
Accounts from town counsel a chaotic scene: officers declare the lady had already been injured during an altercation and resisted arrest, allegedly spitting blood and making an attempt to chew officers. Police preserve that drive was used in response to that resistance and that their actions have been justified. However, the household’s legal group factors to photographs and partial video evidence that they are saying raise troubling questions about how the scenario escalated.
Evanston Police Department Commander Chelsea Brown spoke publicly on behalf of her officers:
“Williams ran into the street and attempted to force her way into an uninvolved vehicle on Howard Street,” Brown wrote. “As officers attempted to detain her, Williams spat blood and saliva into an officer’s mouth and attempted to bite the officer’s ungloved hand. Officers then attempted to place her under arrest, but she resisted, and officers used force to take her into custody.”
Adding to the unease is the lady’s condition at the time she was restrained.
Video reportedly exhibits her acutely aware and talking while officers held her down, before objects have been positioned over her head during the arrest. At some level afterward, she suffered catastrophic medical penalties that left her unresponsive.
While an inner review has reportedly cleared the officers concerned, that conclusion has achieved little to reassure Williams’ household. Instead, it has bolstered their willpower to pursue solutions through the courts. Ultimately, the household says their lawsuit is about a clear accounting of the sequence of occasions that reworked a police encounter into a life-altering tragedy.
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