ISP Finishes Probe Of Cop Use Of Excessive Force In Teen Beating Video

OAK LAWN, IL — Illinois State Police have completed their excessive force investigation of three Oak Lawn police officers who were captured on a citizen's video last summer repeatedly punching 17-year-old Hadi Abuatelah. The video, which went viral on social media, drew outrage from the Arab American community.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Oak Lawn Police Ofcr. Patrick O’Donnell was indicted Tuesday by a Cook County grand jury on felony counts of aggravated battery and official misconduct. The other involved officers are not yet facing charges.

At Tuesday’s village board meeting, Mayor Terry Vorderer and village attorney, Paul O'Grady, would not comment on the indictment. Oak Village Board members have repeatedly stated that they back the police department “110 percent.”

Abuatelah was a backseat passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by police July 27, 2022, in Oak Lawn. Officers said the vehicle had no front registration and claimed they could smell marijuana wafting out the windows. While the driver complied with officers’ orders to exit the vehicle and be searched, police dash-cam video captured Abuatelah taking off running when officers were about to search him.

The initial video taken by a passing motorist, showing two officers punching a prone Abuatelah’s buttocks, head and neck, quickly went viral on social media. A third officer joined them and tased the teen, who can be heard screaming in the video. Police said the teen was later found to be carrying a loaded Arms P25 .25-caliber handgun in an accessory bag.

Oak Lawn police released their own redacted police dash-cam video the day after the teen’s arrest. Chief Dan Vittorio, said the officers were following their training by applying blows to the teen’s “pressure points” to make him stop resisting. Vittorio further defended his officers, saying their use of force accelerated because they feared for their lives based on a hunch that the Abuataleh was carrying a gun.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx called for the ISP Public Integrity Task Force to investigate the officers’ use of excessive force in the days after the teen’s arrest. An ISP spokesperson told Patch in an email that the state task force completed its investigation on Jan. 16 and submitted its findings to the Cook County State’s Attorney Office.

“The task force did not participate in the review or charging process of the Cook County State’s Attorney Office,” the ISP spokesperson said.

Following his arrest, Abuatelah spent the next several days at Advocate Christ Medical Center being treated for injuries he claimed to have suffered, including brain bleeding, a fractured pelvis, a broken nose, and other bodily injuries. Abuatelah was later charged as a juvenile with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. The teen’s case is still ongoing.

A federal civil lawsuit has also been filed on Abuataleh’s behalf naming the Village of Oak Lawn, the Oak Lawn Police Department, the police chief and the three police officers. The complaint claims the officers “engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct” and violated Abuataleh’s civil rights.

Community activists joined Abuataleh’s family attorneys and his parents for a news conference Wednesday at the Council on American- Islamic Relations- Chicago. A CAIR-Chicago staff attorney admitted that they still hadn’t seen the grand jury indictment. The state’s attorney did not return Patch’s calls for comment.

CAIR-Chicago executive direction Ahmed Rehab likened the video of the arrest as “three big adult males pounding on a frail minor.”

“I’m not going to sit here and adjudicate what this person is guilty of or not guilty of,” Rehab said. “When you see this sort of aggressive overreaction that is later explained away as, ‘well my life was threatened, I thought my life was threatened,’ time and time again cameras showed this wasn’t the case. What is the case is power trips and ego. They are a split-second difference between professionalism and police brutality.”

The Abuataleh family attorney, Zaid Abdallah, said while he was happy with news of the officer’s indictment, Abdallah hoped the other two police officers involved in the teen’s arrest would also be indicted.

“This was not right. These actions were brutal. They were born out of hate. They were heinous,” Abdallash said. “I hope this is message gets out to the police chief [Vittorio] that there is no room for these type of actions in our society.”