Mother Carlishia Hood has filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago and several police officers after she and her son were arrested in a fatal shooting and then released days later after murder charges were dropped.
Cook County prosecutors dropped murder charges against Hood and her 14-year-old son in the shooting death of a man during a fight in a restaurant in West Pullman this month. This followed a video from inside the restaurant showing the man identified as Jeremy Brown punching the woman several times before he was shot by the teen.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a statement Monday, “Based upon the facts, evidence, and the law we are unable to meet our burden of proof in the prosecution of these cases.” The police initially arrested Hood and her son last week over the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Brown. Hood, 35, had been ordered held on a $3 million bond while her son was charged as a juvenile and was being held without bail.
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According to prosecutors, Hood went inside Maxwell Street Express, 11656 S. Halsted St. around 11 p.m. on June 18 to pick up food while her son was in the car waiting for her. As she waited in line, she got into an argument with Brown, per prosecutors. Hood subsequently began texting her son and pointing to him outside. Her son entered Maxwell’s and stood in the doorway as the argument turned into a fight. Brown punched Hood in the head three times, according to prosecutors, and that was when Hood’s son pulled out a firearm and shot the victim in the back.
Brown fled the restaurant, but Hood’s son followed him outside and fired more shots after Hood told him to shoot and kill him, prosecutors said. Brown was shot twice in the back and died from his injuries later. Hood would later turn herself in to police, who recovered an unloaded, unregistered handgun along with an empty magazine. Officials later found that Hood has a valid Illinois FOID card and a concealed carry license. Hood and her son were initially charged with one count of first-degree murder. Hood was also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. All charges have now been dropped.
On Tuesday, Hood filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against Chicago and the officers who arrested her, accusing them of malicious prosecution, false arrest, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“My life changed. My son’s life changed,” Hood said of the arrest. “I’ve experienced pain in many ways that I would never have thought. What happened to me was totally unnecessary. Never in a million years would I have imagined being brutally attacked, beaten, and being arrested.”
Hood’s attorneys said they are thankful to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for having the charges against her dropped, adding that the arrest was “an obvious rush to judgment.”
“You don’t have to be a lawyer to appreciate and recognize that when a woman is violently attacked by a man – an unarmed woman – that she shouldn’t be arrested,” attorney Brandon Brown said. “And if any one of you were to replace Carlishia Hood with your mother, with your sister, with your daughter; if your mother, or sister, or daughter were attacked in a restaurant when she’s trying to order a cheeseburger, would you expect that she would be arrested?”
Hood’s attorneys said her attacker Brown had “a documented criminal history for being violent against African-American women.” They said their client has been facing threats since she and her son were released, stressing that additional lawsuits may come.
