CPD moves to fire officer who dragged Mia Wright by the hair, knelt on her neck during 2020 civil unrest
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Police Department is seeking to fire an officer who dragged an innocent woman out of her car by her hair and pressed his knee against her neck in 2020.
Police Supt. David Brown last week filed disciplinary charges with the Chicago Police Board against Officer David Laskus, accusing him of a total of 29 total violations of CPD rules, including violation of constitutional rights, disobeying an order, bringing discredit on the department, maltreatment of a person, engaging in an unjustified physical altercation, and criminal damage to property.
It will now be up to the board to determine if Laskus should be fired, or face any other discipline.
Mia Wright and four other people had gone to the Brickyard Mall on May 31, 2020, amid widespread looting in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, but arrived to find it closed.
Their vehicle was surrounded by police as they tried to leave the parking lot. Cellphone video of the incident showed officers on both sides of the car bashing the windows with their batons before pulling Wright and another woman from the vehicle and pinning them to the ground.
The disciplinary charges against Laskus accuse him of using "unreasonable force" by breaking the car's window with his baton, dragging Wright by the hair, pulling her to the ground, and kneeling on her neck as she was lying on the ground.
Wright was left blind in one eye as a result of post-traumatic stress, city attorneys told the City Council Finance Committee earlier this year as aldermen approved a $1.675 million settlement with Wright and the four others who were with her that day.
Under terms of the settlement, Wright will receive $650,000 in damages, while the other four people who were in the car with her will get $243,750 each.
City attorneys have said police officers claimed they thought Wright and the others had been looting, but Wright and her companions have denied any wrongdoing, and city attorneys who recommended the settlement told aldermen in February that an investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability found no evidence that anyone in the car was involved in any looting before officers approached the car. Indeed, city attorneys said there is no evidence they got out of the car before police forced them out.
