Oak Lawn Cop Shown In Video Punching Teen Facing Charges: Reports

OAK LAWN, IL — A Cook County grand jury has reportedly indicted an Oak Lawn police officer on criminal charges who was captured on a citizen’s video last summer along with two other officers repeatedly punching a juvenile under arrest, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Oak Lawn Police Ofcr. Patrick O’Donnell is said to have been indicted Tuesday on counts of aggravated battery and official misconduct in connection to the arrest of 17-year-old Hadi Abuatelah last July.

On July 27, 2022, Abuatelah was a backseat passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by police for lack of a front plate and because officers claimed they could smell marijuana wafting out the windows. The driver complied with officers’ orders to exit the vehicle and be searched, police dash-cam video showed after the fact.

Abuatelah got out of the vehicle holding an accessory bag. When officers went to search him, police dash-cam video captured the teen running away and a pursuit through village streets. Officers caught up with the teen at 95th Street and McVicker, where a citizen’s video that quickly went viral showed Abuatelah face down on the pavement as the officers attempted to handcuff him.

The video showed two officers, joined by a third officer, punching the teens’ buttocks and another punching the teen behind his ear, then tasing him. Police said Abuatelah was resisting arrest and claimed to have found a loaded semi-automatic handgun in the bag, which the teen covered with his body.

The teen’s arrest and use of excessive force drew outrage from the area’s Arab American community, in which protesters called for an end to “racial profiling and criminalization of Arab Americans by Oak Lawn police.”

Oak Lawn police also released their own redacted dashboard camera video the next afternoon of the teen’s takedown, shown from a different angle. In a news conference the next day, Oak Lawn Police Chief Dan Vittorio said that the officers’ blows were to “pressure points” to make the teen stop resisting, and were part of the officers’ training.

Vittorio defended his officers, saying their use of force accelerated because they feared for their lives based on a hunch that the teen had a gun inside the accessory bag. The chief further stated that the dash-cam video showed Abuataleh’s hand trying to access the bag.

The teen spent several days at Advocate Christ Medical Center being treated for injuries he claimed to have suffered from the arrest, 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. Abuataleh also faces misdemeanor charges.

The case is currently under review by the Illinois State Police, who are conducting an excessive force investigation at the request of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. It is unclear if state police have completed their review.

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

At Tuesday’s village board meeting, Mayor Terry Vorderer and village attorney, Paul O'Grady, would not comment on the latest developments of an indictment against one of the officers involved. The Oak Lawn Village Board has repeatedly stated that it backs police “110 percent.”

Muhammed Sankari, lead organizer for the Arab American Action Network, that has been at the forefront of calling for the Oak Lawn officers' termination and arrest, told Patch it was “a step in the right direction.”

“It's not everything we want because we believe all three of the officers committed a crime,” Sankari said. “Not just on officer, but all three should be charged for justice to be served.”

Sankari added that relations between the Arab American community and Oak Lawn police have always been tense. Asked about the loaded Arms P25 .25-caliber Abuataleh was accused of having, Sankari called it “an allegation that the police have made.”

“He has the presumption of innocence throughout the process,” Sankari said. “It doesn’t matter, it’s irrelevant, that’s up to the courts.”

Zaid Abdahllah, an attorney for Abuatelah, told the Sun-Times that the teen’s parents had not been contacted by anyone from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office about the charges.

Abuataleh’s attorneys in the civil case are scheduled to hold a press conference at noon Wednesday, from the Council of American-Islamic Relations in downtown Chicago.