Black student sues police over arrest

  • 16/01/2017

Newly released dash camera video shows the takedown and arrest of an African-American student, who says police officers used excessive force.

The video, shot in in October 2015, shows Lawrence Crosby, a student at Northwestern University, Illinois, stepping out of a vehicle with his hands up. He's taken down by Evanston officers and struck multiple times. He says he was kicked.

Mr Crosby's attorney Timothy Touhy says although the traffic stop was justified, nothing else was.

Someone called 911 to report a possible car theft, but the vehicle belonged to Mr Crosby and was registered in his name.

"They took him to the station and charged him with two criminal offenses, for which Lawrence had to stand trial and was acquitted," Mr Touhy says.

Now, Mr Crosby is suing the city of Evanston and three police officers, claiming false arrest and excessive force.

"I would suggest that police could have handled the stop considerably better," Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl says.

Brian Miller, the 9th Ward alderman who pushed for the release of the video, says the incident shows a larger problem - that police aren't good at de-escalating confrontations.

"The video shows one of the most outrageous acts I've seen from our officers so far," he says.

There were 17 citizen complaints against Evanston police in 2016, from 77,000 callouts.

Evanston police say all of the officers seen in the video are on full duty. The department declined comment about the suit.

CBS News