The city council of Chicago offered to pay over $6 million as settlement for the families of two men who died while in police custody following rough treatment. Members of the council said they were frustrated over the police misconduct.
According to USA Today, Chicago's finance committee said on Monday, that they will pay the families of Philip Coleman, with $4.95 million settlement and Justin Cook, worth $1.5 million settlement after the two died while being taken in police custody.
A video footage was shown, while Coleman, 38 years old was being subdued with a Taser by Chicago police officers and dragged from a cell in handcuffs hours before dying at a hospital in 2012. While 29-year-old Cook, on the other suffered asthma. Several witnesses stated the police refused to let Cook use his inhaler despite repeated pleas that he could not breathe.
In December 2012, Coleman's parents called the police officers to take their son to a hospital after they were attacked by him while suffering on "an acute mental breakdown", Chicago Tribune reported. According to witnesses, the parents were told by the officers that bringing Coleman to a hospital won't do, instead "he does in jail," Stephen Patton, the city Corporation Counsel said. An autopsy concluded that Coleman died from a rare allergic reaction to an antipsychotic drug.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office released the said video of the incident, which Patton described the footage as "horrific". Coleman was a graduate of the University of Chicago and held a masters degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He had no previous criminal record.
In Cook's case, New York Times reported, Cook was arrested after he allegedly tried to flee, and was chased by the officers on foot, when they tried to pull him over for going through a stop sign. The arresting two officers had just finished their probationary period after being hired.
The officers testified that they gave the inhaler ro Cook, when he screamed he can't breathe, but six witnesses disputed that, Patton said. Cook was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Chicago's city official is also expected to sign an approval to the lawsuit settlement Wednesday.
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