Leroy Kennedy IV, a Black man whose violent arrest last August went viral, filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago following the incident.
Kennedy, who was in Humboldt Park on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois was approached and assaulted by two officers as he walked to a local store in late summer of last year.
WARNING: video contains violence
Kennedy was approached from behind and slammed against a brick wall and then thrown to the ground while officers repeatedly smashed his head against the sidewalk.
The entire incident was captured on video via an officer's body camera.
Kennedy spent four days in jail following this arrest and a charge for aggravated battery against an officer and resisting arrest.
The charges were dropped as a police report filed by the officers stated they arrested Kennedy for "having a shocked look on his face" when he saw the police.
"The police can't even pretend he did anything. You have a police report with no description of a crime and no reason to approach him other than his bulging eyes," said Kennedy's lawyer, Christopher Smith, to ABC7 News.
Kennedy said the event left him "traumatized."
"I told him like, 'Sir, I'm not resisting. I just want to get my glasses...He slammed me again thinking I'm resisting."
After the assault, Kennedy needed to be taken to a local hospital for treatment. Camera footage from the car shows him bloodied and bruised as a result of the encounter.
Kennedy's lawsuit seeks "compensatory damages, and because defendants acted maliciously, wantonly, or oppressively; punitive damages against the individual (officers) in their individual capacities."
The Chicago Police Department has refused to comment on the incident or the lawsuit.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
