The Oak Lawn Police Department said the boy, who they did not identify, was armed with a semiautomatic weapon during the incident Wednesday afternoon and ran from officers who had made a traffic stop. “The subject refused to listen to verbal commands, which led to a physical confrontation with two officers,” the department said in a statement. The beating, set against the backdrop of the McDonald’s arches, was captured on a minutes-long video by a bystander who could be heard saying: “Why are they beating him like this? He’s a little boy.” It is unclear what had happened before the video began, and part of the video is obscured by a vehicle. However, two police officers can be seen punching the 120kg teenager, identified by his lawyer as Hadi Abuatelah, in the legs and face at least 10 times as he lies on the ground. Gerald Vetter, a spokesman for the Police Department, did not immediately return phone and email messages Thursday. It said in a statement Thursday that a police officer was also taken to hospital, but did not elaborate on the injuries. He said the investigation into the incident is ongoing and charges are pending. Zaid Abdallah, the boy’s lawyer, said Hadi was a passenger in the vehicle. The lawyer said he did not know what the traffic stop was or why Hadi decided to flee. “You have subdued him,” he said. “If he broke the law, we have a process for that in America. You arrest the person. He’s going to bond court. He goes to his preliminary hearing. He goes to court. This is the process. The process is not about smashing his head on the pavement.” Mr Abdallah said he was trying to establish whether Hadi had the gun at the time of the beating, but that his client was unable to speak coherently about it yet. “I can tell you for certain that the gun was never moved,” he said, “the gun was never pointed.” Mr Abdallah said Hadi, who is due to enter secondary school this year and is training to be a barber, “is not doing very well at the moment”. “He’s conscious, but not lucid,” she said. “He’s emotionally hurt to the point where he just wants his mother and father by his side.” The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that it wanted the police department to release dash and body camera footage of all the officers involved and conduct an internal investigation. “Regardless of the alleged offense that led to the arrest, the video clearly shows a restrained teenager being subdued, not resisting, brutally beaten by three officers without justification,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR-Chicago. “The issue here is excessive violence and police brutality. Something we see over and over and over.”
