The Chicago police oversight agency has released video of a cop striking a man at Midway Airport earlier this year after getting complaints that the man was drinking and bothering passengers.
The incident took place near a baggage carousel on Feb. 23, according to a statement from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
A Southwest Airlines employee had told the officer that a man was “drinking alcohol and disturbing passengers” near the carousel, COPA said in a statement.
Video shows the officer approach the man and kick the man’s bag, then hit him with a police radio, according to COPA. The man was taken to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment of a cut on his head.
According to a police report on the incident, the officer said he was on routine patrol when he got a complaint about a man drinking beer. The officer told the man to leave, but there was a confrontation and the officer “struck the homeless person with his police radio.”
