Suit: Police Kicked, Pepper Sprayed Woman's Grandsons
CHICAGO (STMW) - A grandmother filed a federal excessive force lawsuit Wednesday against several Chicago police officers and the city, claiming the officers kicked and pepper sprayed her three teenage grandsons in a June incident at their South Side home.
Barbara Carroll filed the suit Wednesday on U.S. District court on behalf of her three grandchildren JeJuan, Jamale and Jaquan Carradine.
Carroll claims in the suit that police responded to her home on the 6800 block of S. Bishop St. the morning of June 24 when a neighbor attacked her grandson JeJuan Carradine, then 15. The neighbor returned to the home twice that day after being released from police custody and began threatening the family, according to the suit.
Police responded the second time the neighbor returned to the home, and allegedly kicked and Tasered JeJuan after hancuffing him face-down on the ground, according to the suit. Another officer allegedly stepped onto his head, Tasered and pepper sprayed Jaquan, then 14, in a nearby gangway.
Both boys were arrested in the incident, but were later released without charges, the suit said.
During the incident, another officer allegedly sprayed pepper spray into the face of Jamale Carradine, then 16, according to the suit. Carroll claims the boy passed out and later spent several days in the hospital for respiratory failure from the spray, and that responding officers initially refused to allow responding paramedics to treat the boy for 10 to 20 minutes as he lay in the family's front yard.
The nine-count suit claims the officers' actions were "grossly disproportionate" to the circumstances. It claims excessive force, failure to intervene, failure to provide medical attention, unlawful seizure and false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and two claims against the city of Chicago.
A spokesperson for the city's Department of Law did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
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