Irene Chavez stood handcuffed, wearing a Green Bay Packers beanie, outside a South Shore gay bar in December. She had been kicked out for being too drunk and punching a security guard, but her friend pleaded with police officers to take her to a hospital instead of jail as Chavez cried out that she was a veteran with PTSD.
Instead, the officers were seen on body camera footage laughing, cussing at her and singing along to “You Are My Sunshine” with her as they took her to the Grand Crossing police district station for a misdemeanor battery charge. About an hour later, they found Chavez unconscious in the lockup with her shirt tied around her neck.
Tuesday morning, attorneys filed a 55-page lawsuit in federal court in Chicago on behalf of the family of Chavez, 33. She died at a hospital after being removed from the cell where she was found slumped over with one end of the shirt tied around her neck and the other secured to a metal bar, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the city of Chicago and several Chicago police officers and alleges that officers failed to recognize that Chavez was experiencing a mental health crisis and did not properly monitor her while she was in a police holding cell.
“Police violence is often thought of as a gun or a punch, but Irene died from police violence,” attorney Sheila Bedi said at a news conference held to announce the lawsuit. “It’s an act of violence to arrest someone who is clearly no threat to public safety and who is begging for mental health services. It is an act of violence to house someone in crisis alone in a jail cell that practically invites self-harm.”
Her cause and manner of death were still pending as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Chicago police reported the incident as an “attempted suicide” when she was found, according to official reports.
The city’s Law Department declined to comment on pending litigation.
Chavez’s family and friends also attended the news conference. Chavez was a decorated military veteran who served time in combat zones and studied to be a paramedic, according to the lawsuit.
“What we know is Irene Chavez was a bright light in her community, with her friends and with her family. At the memorial service, I remember seeing Irene’s friends wearing Green Bay Packers jerseys and memorabilia,” attorney Andrew Stroth said. “And I laughed because I said, even in Chicago Bears country, Irene’s light was very vibrant. What we know, though, is that Irene’s bright light, and promising light, and engaging spirit was extinguished by the unjustified actions and inactions of the Chicago Police Department.”
The lawsuit alleges that in video already released to the public from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency investigating the death, Chavez is heard making several statements, including that she is “not alright” and that she is a veteran with PTSD. In addition, the lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges her friends told officers Chavez was in distress during her arrest.
An arrest report that was released by COPA said Chavez was taken into custody after she was accused of punching a security guard at the bar in the face after he asked her to stop trying to play music on a broken jukebox.
After the security guard restrained her and took her outside to wait for police, she spat in the face of a second security guard, the report said. The security guards requested she be charged with a misdemeanor and not a felony.
“Not only did CPD officers refuse to accommodate Irene’s disability during arrest, but they intentionally escalated the situation by mocking Irene and her friend, and using foul, aggressive language,” the complaint reads.
The family’s attorneys pointed to an exchange captured on police body camera of an officer engaging with her as she was being handcuffed and after her friends had said she was a homeless veteran.
Chavez, who had been drinking, according to her attorneys, turns to the officer, who is asking a question and observing the arrest by another officer. Chavez appears to respond by saying she is talking to another officer. She then tells the officer to shut up and says, “(expletive) you.”
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“Go (expletive) yourself,” the officer yells back at Chavez.
The officer then said, “you ain’t talking to me like that. I don’t know who you think I am,” according to details in the lawsuit.
“Officer Doe #1 knew or should have known that Irene was in a mental health crisis and yet escalated the situation in a threatening and aggressive manner, entirely disregarding Irene’s mental health,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit cited instances when concerns about the Chicago Police Department’s response to those in crisis has been documented, including in the 2017 U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the department that led to a sweeping court-ordered mandate to reform it.
When asked at the news conference about the videos, Iris Chavez, Irene Chavez’s older sister, seemed to point to what these policing experts found: a lack of professionalism and commitment to protect someone they were responding to.
“I wasn’t trained. I didn’t go to school to be a paramedic or doctor, none of that,” Chavez said. “But just looking at the video and (I am) saying to myself, ‘Why aren’t they doing this instead? Why didn’t they do this? Why is he talking to her like that?’ … All I see is people who wear cool outfits … and getting a check, there was no care there. There was no remorse. No one even questioned, ‘Do you think we should do this instead?'”
After the arrest at the bar, officers failed to take Irene Chavez to a hospital or provide medical care, instead transporting her to the Grand Crossing district lockup, which had “two obvious suicide hazards,” according to the lawsuit.
One hazard was two metal bars that were low to the ground. Second, the observation window to the lockup was partially covered with paper.
“The paper blocked the window and prevented officers from visually observing people detained in the cell,” the lawsuit noted.
“Once alone in the cell, Irene repeatedly cried out for help—reasserting that she was a veteran who lived with PTSD and needed to see her therapist,” the lawsuit alleges. “Multiple CPD Officers heard Irene’s cries for at least 45 minutes and each one ignored her. After Irene was quiet for a few minutes, an officer climbed on a desk to peer over the paper obscuring the window to the holding cell. The CPD officer then saw Irene slumped over with one end of her shirt tied around her neck and the other secured to the metal bar. Medical professionals removed an unconscious Irene from that cell, and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital.”
According to the lawsuit, COPA documented the paper obscuring the view and notified the department, instructing them “that this practice posed a danger to people in its custody.”
In an incident report on her suicide attempt, which was also released by COPA, officers noted that while on the scene, Chavez didn’t make threats to harm herself. She also said that she had about three drinks while at the bar.
According to the report, Chavez was “belligerent during processing, repeatedly shouting ‘It was self-defense!’ ‘I’m a veteran, I have PTSD! Talk to my therapist!'” When taken into the lockup, officers removed her belt and shoe laces and handcuffed her to a bench.
Just after 1 a.m., she shouted, “This isn’t funny!” and threw one of her boots at the holding cell window, the report said. She became quiet for about five minutes until one of the officers looked through the window of the lockup and saw that her short-sleeved button-down shirt was off and wrapped around her neck, the report said.
Body camera videos show that the shirt was tied to the metal bar that she was handcuffed to above the bench, which appears to be a couple of feet off the ground.
Officers checked her pulse, performed CPR and called for EMS, according to the videos and report. Officers were able to feel a faint pulse while they did chest compressions.
Emergency responders said she did not have a pulse before taking her to the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to the report. At the hospital, she was able to begin breathing on her own but remained in critical condition.
According to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, she was pronounced dead at 9:49 a.m. at the hospital after the incident had occurred at 1:09 a.m. at the lockup.
Chavez was described in the lawsuit as a native Chicagoan and a “queer Afro-Latina woman.” Bedi said after the news conference that the fact that Chavez was gay, Black and Latinx played a role in how officers treated her.
After her discharge from the Army, she lived in Texas and completed paramedic courses at Central Texas College. She took a solo backpacking trip through Central America as a way to reflect on what it means to “become better,” the lawsuit said. Chavez moved back to Chicago in mid-2018.
The lawsuit also notes Chavez’s documented struggles, pointing to her diagnosis of PTSD after serving two tours and suffering two concussions.
Chavez had told her sister she didn’t feel “normal” anymore, that she felt like a “robot.” And in October 2021, military affairs caseworkers developed a suicide safety plan for her, the lawsuit said.
Chavez struggled with drinking as well, committing to her sobriety in the months before the incident. She had relapsed, the lawsuit said, by December 2021.
Chavez also struggled during the pandemic and became reclusive and paranoid and lost a job. She was also disinterested in activities that she loved — such as playing sports with her nephews, going to the lakefront, attending LGBTQ+-centered events with friends, and volunteering at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
“Her loved ones remember her as smart, funny, and loving with a commitment to making the world a better place,” the lawsuit reads. “After her honorable discharge from the military, Irene developed serious post-traumatic stress disorder (‘PTSD’), and struggled with alcohol dependency. Irene dreamed of healing her trauma, farming on her family land in Mexico, and traveling the world. But on December 18, 2021, the actions and inactions of Chicago Police Department (CPD) Officers and the City of Chicago’s policy and practice failures cut Irene’s life tragically short.”