A minor traffic accident turns to a major beatdown
Jamie Price has a story to tell—he claims he was beaten by Chicago police after getting into a minor accident in the alley behind his mother's home. He exchanged contact information with the other driver, as most people do in a minor accident, and was prepared to move on when a Chicago police officer
arrived on the scene:
"I give the cop my ID and he had me place my hands on the hood of his car,” Price said. "So he patted me down, searched me and he proceeded to put me in cuffs."
Price said when he asked why he was being handcuffed, the officer became angry.
"Grabs my hair, all in the alley, slams me on the ground. Punches me in the face. I had glasses on. Punches me in the face, slams me, gets on my back and calls for backup," Price said.
Price says he feared for his life and tried to run to his mother's house for help. Neighbors noticed the interaction and began filming:
The video shows a group of as many as eight officers holding Price on the ground. At one point, an officer stepped on his back and had put his full bodyweight on Price while holding a fence.
A short time later, price said another officer began kicking him in the head.
"I was actually trying to curl up but I couldn't curl up. I had a guy kicking me in the head and I had a guy kicking me in the genitals twice,” Price said. "I wasn't fighting with them. I was yelling like this is not an arrest. You guys are beating me."
Jamie had to be treated at a local hospital, where medical personnel had to remove the taser prongs that lodged near his eye. Price says he's just lucky a neighbor decided to start filming.
See the video and interviews with Jamie Price and his mother, who also witnessed the beating and claims when she asked police why they were beating him, one officer told her to "shut up and mind her own business."
He faces misdemeanor counts of expired license, no insurance, resisting arrest and leaving the scene of a crime. A representative from the Chicago Police Department said "they are aware of the video and the matter is actively under investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority."