Richard Ray

CPD Investigates After Video Shows Cop Punch ‘Noncompliant' Drug Suspect

“An investigation into the incident has been opened and the matter will be referred to the Independent Police Review Authority for a thorough review of the facts and circumstances of the incident"

The Chicago Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating after a video was shared on social media that shows a plainclothes officer punching a man in the face repeatedly while attempting to subdue him on the ground.

Family members shared the video with NBC 5 that they say was taken around 7:30 p.m. Monday night in the West Englewood neighborhood. It shows Jermaine Milan, 34, on the ground in the middle of the street near West 70th Street and South Wolcott Avenue. A Chicago police officer punches Milan in the head several times while yelling “spit it out.” It is unclear what “it” is. Milan has an extensive criminal record, but his family says he did not deserve to be hit in the head.

Milan, a father of two, was in bond court Tuesday facing drug charges, resisting and obstructing police and assault to a police officer.

“[Jermaine] was minding his own business and they just came at him, you know?” Juwahn, Jermaine’s brother, told NBC 5.

The family says the video captures the officer saying to Milan “I’ll kill you.”

“I don’t like the police no more—at all,” Juwahn said. “They’re wrong for that.”

He admits his brother has had past run-ins with the law, but says when the incident in question occurred, his brother was playing with a child.

“He was just getting his life together with a job and everything,” Juwahn said.

CPD says it is looking into the actions of the police officer seen in the video.

"We became aware of the video documenting plain clothes officers attempting to arrest a noncompliant offender after a suspected narcotics transaction last night,” the department said in a statement. “An investigation into the incident has been opened and the matter will be referred to the Independent Police Review Authority for a thorough review of the facts and circumstances of the incident."

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