Crime & Law
CPD Officer Who Shoved Woman Who Called 911 After Her Boyfriend Beat Her Won’t Be Fired: Records
(WTTW News)
A Chicago police officer who pushed a woman who had called 911 for help after her boyfriend beat and suffocated her more than six years ago will not be fired by city officials, according to records published Thursday.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability urged former Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling to fire Officer Brian Purtell for treating the woman disrespectfully and shoving her into a bank of kitchen cabinets, causing her to strike her head, records show.
The woman was arrested after the altercation with the officer after her boyfriend told officers she had hit him, too, records show. Purtell and his partner repeatedly violated CPD’s policy for handling violent incidents between intimate partners, the agency better known as COPA concluded. Snelling agreed with that conclusion.
But while Snelling agreed that Purtell’s use of force violated Chicago Police Department policy, Snelling said the officer’s decision to use force against the woman was “reasonable and necessary” but not proportional, records show.
COPA leaders accepted Snelling’s determination that Purtell should be suspended for 180 days, instead of asking a member of the Chicago Police Board to resolve the disagreement, which could have led to Purtell’s termination.
Purtell is assigned to patrol the South Chicago (4th) Police District, where the incident took place, according to a CPD spokesperson. Purtell, who did not respond to a request for comment from WTTW News, earns $115,158 annually, according to a city database.
Purtell and his partner, who faces a 15-day suspension, “revictimized” the woman and ignored evidence that she had been battered by her boyfriend, COPA concluded. Neither the woman nor her boyfriend were named in the report, in keeping with the agency’s rules.
The woman “called the police because she needed protection from being beaten and suffocated,” COPA concluded. “She was in distress. What she received instead, was responding officers only responding negatively to her understandably agitated and frightened demeanor. They reacted to her demeanor instead of the substance of what she was saying. They gave her just minutes of their time before concluding that they were not going to protect her.”
The incident began just after 2:30 p.m. Sept. 5, 2020, when the woman called 911, records show. It is unclear why it took more than four years for the probe to be completed and nearly two more years for the investigation to be shared with the public.
When Purtell and his partner arrived, both the woman and her boyfriend were yelling at each other, and both accused the other of injuring them, records show.
After separating the couple, Purtell asked the man “why you with some crazy-ass woman?” according to COPA’s report.
COPA concluded that statement was “exceedingly disrespectful and unprofessional” as was Purtell’s decision to repeatedly yell at the woman.
When the woman asked the officers to arrest her boyfriend, Purtell said he would report that both had battered each other and indicated he wanted to leave because his shift had ended, according to COPA’s report.
When the woman objected, asked for Purtell’s badge number and demanded he call a sergeant to the scene, Purtell responded “Go right ahead. I don’t give a s---,” according to COPA’s report.
As the heated exchange between the woman and Purtell continued, the officer “with both of his hands, shoved her hard enough for her to hit her head on the corner of the upper kitchen cabinet behind her, forcing her into a microwave sitting on the counter, breaking the microwave,” according to COPA’s report.
As her boyfriend came to her aide and berated Purtell for shoving her, the woman said she lost consciousness briefly, according to COPA’s report. When she came to, she said her head hurt, records show.
As the woman waited for an ambulance, she and Purtell argued about who first made contact with the other, with the officer blaming the woman for causing him to shove her, according to the report.
After being taken to a nearby hospital, the woman was released and arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery, only to have the charges dismissed three months later, according to the report. Her boyfriend was not arrested.
COPA said footage captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras showed that Purtell “turned back around in order to shove” the woman, rather than de-escalating the situation or moving away from the woman, according to the report.
The entire incident lasted just six minutes, according to COPA’s probe.
Both officers failed to follow CPD policy and state law and conduct an investigation to determine “which party was the predominant aggressor” and arrest that person, COPA concluded.
The officers “repeatedly disregarded” the woman’s claims that she only injured her boyfriend while defending herself from the much larger man, who weighed more than 100 pounds more than she did, according to COPA’s report.
While the woman “exhibited a loud and angry demeanor towards the officers,” neither officer responded appropriately, COPA concluded.
The woman “was trying to get the officers to understand that she had been suffocated and beaten, showing her bruises and ripped shorts and a busted-in door,” COPA concluded. “Instead of receiving compassion and protection, the officers showed no understanding that she was explaining to them that she had been through a traumatic experience.”
The decision by Purtell, a 13-year veteran of CPD, to use force against the woman “was unreasonable, unnecessary, and unproportional,” COPA concluded.
After a sergeant arrived on the scene, Purtell admitted to his partner that he “f----- up,” and tried to apologize to the woman, according to COPA’s probe. However, when he was interviewed by COPA three years later, “Purtell showed no remorse, and instead seemed to double down on his belief of the righteousness of his actions and ‘instincts,’” COPA concluded.
“But CPD has no room for someone among their ranks who exhibits this type of instinctual behavior,” COPA concluded. “Officer Purtell was already exhibiting his anger towards (the woman) in the way (he) treated her, talked about her and defiantly told her he would not provide her service, and his impatience to get to the end of his shift, when his ‘instinct’ to brutally shove a person half his size without regard to what was behind her, kicked in.”
Snelling disagreed with those conclusions, saying it was unclear whether the woman initiated the contact with Purtell, the former top cop told COPA’s leaders.
In addition, Snelling told COPA its probe had taken too long to complete.
“Officer Purtell’s response to this domestic incident was not up to the CPD standard,” Snelling wrote. “With that said, a significant suspension and additional training are the proper penalty for Purtell’s actions. The unexplained nearly 4-year delay in concluding a straight forward investigation is a significant issue.”
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
