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Innocent Black Student Files Lawsuit Against Police Who Put A Gun To His Head

Chicago, IL — Jaylan Butler, a 20-year old man from Chicago, says that he was false­ly accused and vio­lent­ly arrest­ed by police who threw him to the ground and put a gun to his head even after learn­ing that he was the wrong guy. He filed a law­suit against the police offi­cers, alleg­ing false arrest and exces­sive use of force.

n the inci­dent that occurred last year, Butler, who is a mem­ber of the school’s swim team, was trav­el­ing with his team­mates on a bus when he was asked by his coach to take a pic­ture of a road sign while they were on a rest stop.

As he was walk­ing back to the bus, sev­er­al patrol cars sud­den­ly sur­round­ed him and at least six police offi­cers came up to him and con­front­ed him with guns drawn.

“Plaintiff Jaylan Butler has always known that he could be tar­get­ed by police offi­cers because he is Black. Mr. Butler’s father taught him at a young age how to max­i­mize his chances of sur­viv­ing an encounter with law enforce­ment — stop instant­ly, put your hands up, drop any­thing you are hold­ing, and drop to your knees,” the law­suit states.

Butler quick­ly did that, but he was forced to the ground by the offi­cers. An offi­cer even held a gun to his head and threat­ened to “blow his fu – ing head off” if he moved. Butler com­plied with all the orders as he was being hand­cuffed while face down in the ground.

His coach­es then noticed the com­mo­tion and inter­vened and explained to the police offi­cers that he was a col­lege ath­lete. He was able to show his ID to the offi­cers only after the vio­lent arrest. He was released when they real­ized he was not the per­son they were look­ing for.

“They nev­er told Jaylan why he was being arrest­ed, even after they real­ized their mis­take,” Rachel Murphy, a staff attor­ney at the ACLU of Illinois, told New York Post. “Instead, it’s clear they based their deci­sion to arrest and harm Jaylan on the fact that he was a young Black man.”

Butler recent­ly filed a law­suit against the offi­cers from the Hampton Police Department, the East Moline Police Department, and the Rock Island County Sheriff’s Office for false arrest, exces­sive deten­tion, and exces­sive use of force.