2 Police Videos Show Violent Struggle After Chicago Officer Decides Not to Shoot

CHICAGO, IL — Two videos released by Chicago Police Friday show the ordeal endured by an officer who decided not to shoot a violent man who took her to the ground and battered her and her partner as they fought to subdue him on Oct. 5.

The officer, who remains hospitalized, told the police superintendent she did not fire on the man because she wanted to spare herself, her family and the department the scrutiny that would ensue if she had. Instead, she and her partner battled with the man on a West Side street. Only after several officers responding to their distress call joined the struggle did police manage to subdue the man.

Later, police would learn that Parta Huff, 28, of Maywood — a man with a history of resisting police — was high on PCP, according to prosecutors. Huff is accused of slamming the officer's head into the pavement near the corner of Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue. He's charged with attempted murder of a police officer and aggravated battery of a police officer.

One of the videos is from the dashboard camera of the two officers who responded to a call about a man who crashed his car near a liquor store in the Austin community. A clerk at the store called 911, and then pointed out the man to the officers. The man quickly became combative, according to the video and police accounts.

The other video is from the body camera worn by an officer who rushed to the scene and helped subdue the accused. Huff is punched several times as police try to dislodge his grip from the officer's hair and head. At one point, blood drips from his mouth to the pavement.

Advisory: Profanity can be heard in both videos; the violent scenes may be disturbing.

During the arrest, the officers deployed a Taser on the accused several times. The Taser appeared to have little to no effect on the man. The Taser wires can be seen attached to his clothing during the struggle. After the arrest was made and the man was taken away, an officer can be heard telling Chicago firefighters that he suffered jolts from the Taser himself as he tried to subdue the man.

Police also tried to use Mace on the man.

“She looked at me and said she thought she was gonna die. And she knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to because she didn’t want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news,” Johnson told reporters at a public ceremony honoring police officers and firefighters on Oct. 6, according to a Chicago Sun-Times account.

Several videos this year have been released by authorities which show the fatal shootings of black men by Chicago police officers. One officer, Jason Van Dyke, faces first-degree murder charges in the October 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. That case, and others, led the U.S. Justice Department to open a federal civil rights investigation into the department. The case also cost Police Supt. Garry McCarthy his job and prompted several nationally televised protests.

The scrutiny and the publicity have left police officers feeling embattled and uncertain of themselves and whether they have the support of the city. Meanwhile, the number of shootings and murders in the city of Chicago has reached record heights.

Johnson released these videos to show what happens when police face danger and decide they can't, for whatever reason, use their firearm to defend themselves.

The next day, Johnson put this attack into context of what has been happening to police departments across the country. He believes police are "second-guessing themselves."

"That’s what we don’t want," Johnson said, as quoted in a Chicago Tribune account. “This officer could (have) lost her life last night. She’s hospitalized right now, but she still has the spirit and the bravery that these officers and firefighters display every day — every day. We have to change the narrative of the law enforcement across this country.”

The Chicago Sun-Times asked a police force expert, retired Illinois State Police Lt. Col. Ronald Janota to analyze the videos and offer an assessment about whether the officers would have been justified in firing on the man.

He stressed that his opinion depended on the accuracy of the information — and that he usually spends days reviewing other information such as court testimony, depositions and doctors’ reports before coming to a conclusion about the proper use of force.

Still, Janota said the female officer and her partner would have been legally justified to shoot and kill Huff “without question.” The law and police policies “clearly state that if an officer or another person is in fear serious bodily injury or if his or her life is in danger, deadly force is justified,” he said.

Huff's record shows he's been arrested four times for resisting police officers during traffic stops. He was free on $10,000 bail on a DUI charge.

photo: Chicago Police video