North Chicago Man's Girlfriend Has Different Story About His Run-In With Police
NORTH CHICAGO (CBS) -- The girlfriend of a North Chicago man who died after he was beaten by police is telling a different story than officers.
As WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports, Dionne Wilcox, 21, tells the Lake County News-Sun that she and boyfriend Darrin Hanna, 45, did indeed have a fight the night he was beaten and stunned by arresting officers. She also says Hanna slapped and punched her.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports
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But Wilcox's story is not consistent with her sister, Darlene, and police are saying, the News-Sun reported.
A veteran sergeant who was at the scene says Wilcox came rushing down the stairs wet, naked, and screaming Hanna was trying to drown her.
But Wilcox said that never happened. She says she was in the bath when police broke down the door, and Hanna was sitting on a bed in the dark and was not out of control as police have said, the News-Sun reported.
An Illinois State Police investigator found a statement Dionne Wilcox gave to police was rewritten by her sister, who says she never liked Hanna.
Police reports show officers were called to Hanna's apartment over complaints that he was fighting with his pregnant girlfriend. Illinois State Police say it all started when Hanna's girlfriend received a call from a female friend, whom Hanna thought was another man.
Quoted in published reports syndicated by the Sun-Times Media Wire, prosecutors said Hanna became enraged and threatened to kill his girlfriend and the unborn child. He also forced her to strip naked and get in a bathtub, where he tried to drown her, prosecutors alleged.
When police came, Hanna came outside with his fists clenched, screaming, "Shoot me!" prosecutors allege. He also tried to bite and head butt officers and kept resisting until they punched him in the face, used the Taser, and hit him in the legs with a baton, prosecutors alleged.
Hanna died a week later. A well-publicized photo taken shortly after his arrest shows him hooked up to tubes in the hospital with his face bloodied and battered.
The officers involved said they had to resort to force because Hanna was belligerent and was resisting being handcuffed.
But Hanna's family blames seven North Chicago police officers for his death, and said they beat him brutally and excessively.
Last week, North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham fired one officer for his role in the incident, and suspended another for 30 days.
