Two men were charged Wednesday with battering two police officers in an overnight melee involving about 500 people at a West Side public housing complex.
Neither officer was seriously injured, but police said the incident nearly spiraled out of control before dozens of officers, some wearing protective gear, arrived at the ABLA Homes in the 1500 block of West 13th Street. Two other responding officers were slightly injured when a brick was thrown into a squad car, striking one of them in the face.
Police identified the suspects as Kearie Walker, 21, and Cortez Paramore, 22, and said they were being sought in a drug investigation when they attacked the officers and ran into ABLA.
More Top Picks Labs
A number of residents and visitors were outside when the men began taunting the officers, police said. Soon up to 500 people had spilled out of their homes, creating a heated scene, said Chicago police spokesman Pat Camden.
“Several hundred unruly people … thought they were going to prevent two people from going to jail, and they didn’t,” Camden said.
Walker and Paramore were charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. No arrests had been made Wednesday in the brick-throwing incident.
Police refused to say how many officers responded to quell the disturbance, estimating only that dozens showed up. Another spokesman, David Bayless, said police used remarkable restraint and “did an excellent job in containing the situation.”
A number of residents cast the incident differently.
“The police got very, very hostile,” said Roxon Love, 24, who said he watched the melee unfold. Love said the situation was chaotic, but he believed the incident began when officers answered a domestic dispute.
The situation escalated quickly, Love said, with reinforcements called in as some in the crowd threw bottles and other objects at the officers.
“[Police] had the helmets on like it was going to be a real riot out here,” said Tiffany Paramore, 23, a cousin of the two men arrested.