Video Shows Cop Stomping on Suspect's Head

Chicago, IL - A Chicago police officer has been relieved of his duties as the department’s Independent Police Review Authority investigates a filmed Monday afternoon incident in which he appeared to stomp on a man’s head and knock him unconscious.

It all started at 3:15 p.m. Monday in the 3900 block of Grenshaw Street on the city’s West Side when two plainclothes officers were dealing with a person CBS has reported to be a narcotics suspect.

A video posted to Facebook and shared thousands of times by someone using the name “Terrance Hustlehard” shows that while one officer is struggling with the suspect, the other comes up and kicks him in the head. The suspect was chest-down to the street at the time of the kick.

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Throughout the incident, the two police officers and several bystanders were engaged in a heated, profanity-laced shouting match, the video shows. The officer who kicked the suspect could be seen in the video yelling for bystanders to “back up” and calling for backup. The officer engaged in the struggle could be heard yelling “don’t you f****ng” bite me” before the kick.

A flood of on-duty police officers responded after backup was called. The video ended shortly after.

The suspect was identified by family to WGN as 24-year-old Shaquille O’Neal.

O'Neal's mother said her son has a criminal record, but the police officer who allegedly kicked him in the head “was too much.”

Police Supt. Eddie Johnson ordered an immediate investigation of police force by the IPRA upon watching the video and relieved one officer involved of his police duties as the investigation unfolds.

"After careful consideration and reviewing the video footage, Superintendent (Eddie) Johnson has decided to relieve one of the officers involved," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune.

The spillover of the controversial Monday afternoon incident on the West Side landed at police headquarters overnight.

A small protest was held outside the building at 35th and Michigan starting around 1 a.m., apparently in response to the alleged cop-stomping incident.

One protester held up a sign stating “CPD is KKK,” while another said the officer who allegedly stomped on the man’s head should be “fired immediately.”