Man Talks About Confrontation With Chicago Police Officer He Caught On Camera

CBS 2

CHICAGO (CBS) — A confrontation with a Chicago Police officer was caught on camera, and has already been seen millions of times on Twitter.

The video shows a Chicago Police officer approaching and trying to swat that person’s phone from their hand as they’re recording. 

CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot spoke exclusively Monday to the man who was shooting the video.

Tommie Hendrick said he was standing on the corner with friends near Oak Street and Cambridge Avenue, in the area of the Cabrini Rowhouses, on Aug. 7. Officers pulled up.

“They hop out, guns drawn, pointed them at us, threatening to shoot if we run – and then, out of nowhere, they just go,” Hendrick said.

Hendrick said since the officers threatened to shoot, he pulled out his phone and started recording. The officers were looking for a person with a gun.

Hendrick followed the officers to the end of the block, and kept shooting video. Hendrick said the officer started walking toward him as a person standing next to Kendrick, said to the officer: “What the f*** is he so angry for?”

The officer appears to reach for his gun, and then Hendrick is heard saying, “Why you shooting people?”

Hendrick said he was flustered and meant to ask the officer why he had threatened to shoot him and friends earlier. Hendrick said the officer responded by saying he had just found a gun, and then said to them, “F*** you!”

Then the person next to Hendrick said, “I don’t have a gun!”

Hendrick said the officer then tried to swat the phone out of his hand. He believes the officer thought he was the one who was talking about the gun.

Hendrick held on to the phone and kept shooting.

He said the officer finally hit his phone out of his hand and it landed on the ground, cracking.

Hendrick said he got scratches on his arm and a bruise on his neck.

“I definitely think he needs some disciplinary actions and he might need to go to anger management,” he said of the officer, “because there’s no way you should be the police reacting like that to a civilian.”

Hendrick said he is in his junior year at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, studying graphic design and cinematography. While home on summer break, he shot a music video for Chicago artist FBG DUCK.

He remains angry about the situation involving the officer.

“I just felt like it was ridiculous, like, you’re a trained officer,” Hendrick said. “There’s no way you should be reacting like this, to someone making a comment – especially a bystander who didn’t do anything.”

Chicago police said they take the incident very seriously. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is now investigating.

The office will look into the circumstances surrounding what happened and determine if any wrongdoing was committed by the officer.

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/08/12/officer-confrontation-caught-camera/