Arrest Made At Site Of Vigil For Missing Woman

JOLIET, IL — A community vigil this week at a Joliet church on South Ottawa Street ended with the arrest of 40-year-old Joliet resident Konika Morrow on charges of obstructing a police officer and aggravated assault. Joliet police posted a lengthy news bulletin about the incident on their Facebook page Wednesday.

A video of the arrest, which has been posted at the bottom of this article, was uploaded to YouTube. Warning to readers: the video includes profanity.

The events surrounding Morrow's arrest were preceded by efforts by officers to ticket dirt bike rider Joshwa Cooley, 19, for operating an unlicensed motorized device on public property, according to Joliet police. The arrested woman, Konika Morrow, is the cousin of the missing woman, she told Joliet Patch.

"Officers observed a (person) on a dirt bike riding southbound on Ottawa. Officers pursued the dirt bike and it eventually pulled over. As (officers) were speaking with the driver, Joshwa J. Cooley, 19, (of) Joliet, the large crowd from the church came over and told Cooley not to talk to the police and it was OK to ride ATVs in the street," Joliet police announced.

As time went on, "the crowd began threatening the officers with harm to them and their families and made racial/derogatory remarks towards the officers. At one point, Morrow, approached the officers and she was told to stay back," Joliet police maintained.

According to police, "when an officer put his arm out to keep Morrow from the other officers, Morrow attempted to hit the officer with her arm. After a brief struggle, Morrow was placed into custody."

The vigil was for missing 33-year-old Joliet resident Jasmine J. Morrow, who was reported missing on July 2 by her mother.

(Article continues below this photo.)

The Joliet Police Department Facebook page had received nearly 200 comments in response to its news post about the dirt bike incident and arrest of Konika Morrow.

Some of the comments were as follows:

• "Cops are just doing the Job we asked them to do! If you don’t like the Law they are enforcing get involved in your local politics and ask your representative to change the law. At minimum they will explain why it exist and how it protects public health and safety. We need to stop pretending that cops are lawyers and legislators."
• "i dont know the details of everything that went on but what i do know is that crowd was there trying to uplift each other and help search for a missing women considering those circumstances it should have never (escalated) to where it did and that shows there is a complete lack of respect by the officers of our city. And anybody with common sense can see that, but i guess its alot of you guys that are just pure evil and ignorant."
• "So why did that uplifting crowd surround officers then? Believe it or not, JPD officers can enforce laws as well as try to find a missing person. Threats towards the officers does not help find their missing person and was unnecessary."
• "Just watch the video they have posted. The district attorney is gonna thank them for posting evidence showing the police done nothing wrong."

Joliet Central High School social studies teacher Ernest Crim, who posted the YouTube video, offered the following commentary on his Facebook page about the incident.

"Woman is tackled by Joliet cop. That’s the truth. That’s what’s seen clearly in the video. However, according to the police, she raised her arm to hit the officer. From what I can see, it shows him obstruct her path as she walked away and he proceeded to tackle her. He claims self-defense. This stems from a crowd gathering for a prayer vigil for #JasmineMorrow, who is missing. The police were reportedly called because a group of people nearby were seen riding ATVs illegally and it led to this. Given the circumstances, it’s still crazy to me that this large man found it necessary to tackle a woman."

WARNING: This video contains profanity.