A woman captured in a viral video being punched in a South Side restaurant before her attacker was shot and killed allegedly by her young son has announced a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department over the handling of the case.
At a news conference Tuesday, attorneys for Carlishia Hood, 35, said they filed a lawsuit against the department in connection with her arrest, though a copy of the complaint was not immediately available.
“What happened to me was totally unnecessary,” Hood said Tuesday. “I just need a little time just to heal and to just get my life back with my baby.”
Hood and her son were charged with murder in the June 18 shooting death of 32-year-old Jeremy Brown. Hood was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, court records show.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office this week dropped murder charges against Hood and the teen after the video surfaced showing a man repeatedly punching the woman in the moments before he was shot and killed. The footage has circulated on social media in recent days.
Prosecutors said Monday that the murder charges against Hood and her son would be dismissed “based upon our continued review and in light of emerging evidence.”
“Based upon the facts, evidence and the law we are unable to meet our burden of proof in the prosecution of these cases,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a statement.
In an unstamped copy of the lawsuit filed against the city of Chicago and five Chicago police officers, Hood alleged false arrest and malicious prosecution related to the June 18 shooting.
The complaint alleges that Hood was “brutally attacked, without provocation” by Brown, who it said had multiple arrests for domestic battery against women and a conviction for aggravated robbery.
Her son shot Brown in a “clear and obvious act of defense of an unarmed woman,” the complaint said.
It alleged the police officers “had multiple opportunities to review the video surveillance and ascertain the lack of criminality.”
An arrest report filed in the case stated that Hood “instructed her juvenile son” to shoot Brown after she and Brown got into an argument at the Maxwell Street Express in the 11600 block of South Halsted Street. The report said Hood turned herself into police and upon a search, police found an unloaded semi-automatic handgun.
Hood had a valid concealed carry license and firearm owner’s identification card, the report said.
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Though the charges were dropped, a representative for the Chicago Police Department said Tuesday that detectives still consider the case to be a cleared murder.
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Court records show Brown had a pending gun case at the time of his death. On Dec. 31, 2022, Brown was arrested at a gas station at 111th and State streets. His arrest report stated that officers saw him walk into the gas station with a gun-shaped bulge in the front pocket of his sweater.
Officers followed Brown inside, but found no weapon when they searched him. The station’s clerk, however, “discreetly related” to the officers that Brown dropped a handgun in a trash can just before the officers entered. Officers wrote that they recovered a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in the wastebasket.
Brown was charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, court records show. That case was still pending at the time of his death and a hearing was scheduled for June 21 — three days after Brown died.
A Cook County judge issued a warrant for his arrest after he allegedly didn’t show up to court.
