Police Agree To Discuss Case Of Firefighter Who Held Man At Gunpoint In Bridgeport
CHICAGO (CBS)—Protesters on Wednesday were calling on Chicago police to take action against a Bridgeport resident and firefighter accused of pulling a gun on someone as he ran a work-related errand.
CBS 2 first talked to the man, Jermayne Smith, after he says a man who was later identified as a firefighter mistook him for a criminal breaking into a car.
Smith says the man—who is not being named by CBS because he hasn't been charged—identified himself as a cop and pulled out a gun and said, "Get on the ground. What are you doing in the neighborhood? Get on the ground before I shoot you,'" Smith recalled.
Police arrived on the scene and placed Smith in handcuffs as officers talked with the man with the gun.
Police officers, according to Smith, asked the man whether Smith touched the car and he said he did not.
Officers told Smith the whole incident was a misunderstanding and both men were free to go.
But Smith said something did not sit right, and he filed a citizen's complaint.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the 9th District police station with copies of a letter they plan to give to Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The letter asks the city to follow up on the complaint Smith filed.
Pastor William Fleishman said the situation boils down to a racial issue. He and other protesters believe the man should be charged with a crime.
"If he would have run out of his home and if we would have announced himself as a police officer brandishing a gun and forced a white male to the ground—if it would take two-and-a-half weeks for him to be apprehended or not," Fleishman said.
Police agreed to meet with the protesters to discuss the incident on Sept. 17 at 11 a.m.