Nov. 08--Two Chicago police officers have been placed on desk duty pending an internal investigation into a fight that left a police sergeant severely beaten in a Loop parking garage last week, the department said.
The investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Division comes amid allegations that the sergeant instigated the fight by using a racial slur against a group of African-Americans, prompting at least one of them to fight him.
The sergeant remained at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Friday, where he is reported in serious condition. But the two other officers who were with the sergeant during the fight have been stripped of their police powers and placed on desk duty while Internal Affairs representatives look into whether the officers violated any department policies during the Oct. 30 altercation, according to a police spokesman.
The altercation occurred in a parking garage in the 100 block of West Madison Street. Police have said the sergeant and the two officers were exiting the elevator on the 12th floor of the garage. Also in the elevator were six other people, including 21-year-old Brian Williams and his 2-year-old daughter, Williams has told the Tribune.
The Tribune is not naming the sergeant because he is a crime victim, and the newspaper is not naming the two other officers because they have not been officially accused of wrongdoing.
In an interview with the Tribune last weekend, Williams said the group was in the elevator when the sergeant and his two colleagues entered and the sergeant used the racial slur, which angered his African-American friend. Williams, who is white, said his friend confronted the sergeant at his car. His friend was the only one who physically attacked the sergeant, Williams said.
The sergeant never identified himself as a police officer and was wearing no visible badge, Williams said.
Williams said he tried to get his friend away from the sergeant when he saw the sergeant pull a gun.
Police said the sergeant suffered facial fractures, a concussion and bleeding on the brain during the fight. His gun was also taken from him.
"My 2-year-old daughter, I was in fear for her and for her safety. I didn't know he was police, I just kicked the gun out of his hand because I was scared," Williams told the Tribune on Nov. 1, shortly before he turned himself in at the Harvey police station.
He surrendered to police at the encouragement of his sister, who lives in the south suburb.
"I'm really not the type of person they make me out to be," said Williams, who is from Hazel Crest. "I was just there when it happened."
Williams, who is on probation for possession of marijuana, was later released by Chicago police detectives without being charged. The police spokesman said no one has been criminally charged in the beating.
Williams said the six people who approached the sergeant were himself, his fiancee and their 2-year-old daughter, plus his friend, his friend's fiancee and his friend's cousin. The group was downtown for Williams' friend and his fiancee's wedding at City Hall.
Williams said the judge announced an intermission in marriage procedures, so the six of them headed back to the parking garage to smoke.
Meanwhile, the sergeant and the two officers had spent that day at the city's Law Department offices at Washington and LaSalle streets, sources said. The three were named as defendants in a 2007 federal lawsuit that is still pending but may go to trial, court records show.
The suit alleges that the trio conducted an unlawful search of an Englewood neighborhood residence.
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