Lawrence Crosby, who was a PhD student at Northwestern University, was arrested in October 2015 in Evanston after a misunderstanding with police. The arresting officers reportedly did not believe that the car the former engineering doctoral student was driving belonged to him, so they made an arrest.
However, the police officers used excessive force and tackled Crosby to the ground for “stealing” a car that belonged to him.
Now, the city is attempting to make amends.
According to the Associated Press, Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz has confirmed that Crowby has reached a $1.25 million settlement in the incident.
From the report:
Touhy said Crosby was trying to repair loose molding on his car when a woman called police to report a black man trying to steal a car. When he drove off, the woman followed Crosby in her car as he drove from his apartment to Northwestern’s science building, giving police his location.
Crosby got out the car with his hands raised after being stopped by police but was tackled when he failed to immediately obey orders to get on the ground.
Once Crosby was removed from the car, he was beaten by the arresting officers with “knee strikes and open-handed strikes.”
Despite the fact that he did nothing wrong in the incident, Crosby was charged with disobeying officers and resisting arrest. All of this for driving and attempting to fix his own vehicle.
