Prosecutors: Chicago Cop Shoved Elderly Gas Station Customer
(STMW) -- A veteran Chicago Police officer is accused of shoving an elderly gas station customer in Oak Lawn, leaving the 89-year-old man with a broken hip, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday, the Sun-Times is reporting.
David Barrett allegedly became upset on Dec. 12 when a pump began malfunctioning at a Shell gas station, near 105th Street and Cicero, and went inside to complain.
The victim, who was in line in front of the 58-year-old Barrett, asked him to calm down, prosecutors said. Barrett reacted by pushing the senior citizen in the chest with his hands, causing him to fall, prosecutors said.
The elderly man broke his right hip from the fall and required surgery, prosecutors said. He also tore his right rotator cuff as a result of the tumble.
Barrett's attorney Stuart Goldberg told Cook County Judge James Brown that his client has been a Chicago Police officer for 31 years. Barrett also served in the Illinois National Guard for six years, Goldberg said.
The defense attorney said the arrest was overblown: "This case is not about a battery. It is about how Oak lawn police treat a Chicago police officer."
Barrett is currently assigned to the First Deputy Superintendent's Office.
Brown ordered Barrett held in lieu of $10,000 bail for two counts of aggravated battery.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
