Residents of a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side were seen on video berating police officers after a car was removed from a crime scene with the bodies of victims still inside, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The video, titled “So Damn Disrespectful, This Is Just Not Right,” was uploaded to YouTube by user “Jay Hustle” and has been circulating across social media.
In the video, an incensed crowd can be heard screaming and swearing at police officers at their seemingly callous actions. One person in the background can be heard repeating “Wow” in apparent disbelief.
“How do you tow a car with a deceased body in it?” a voice coming from behind the camera, presumably Hustle’s, can be heard asking.
As the crowd approaches the crime-scene tape, one individual can be seen in some sort of struggle with an officer, who appears to have grabbed his shirt, before the officer raises his baton to ward him off. The individual is not struck.
According to the Sun-Times, at around 2:35 a.m. on Sunday, two men and a woman were traveling in the vehicle in Humboldt Park when shots were fired from the sidewalk. The driver, 32-year-old Darron Thomas, and the front-seat passenger, 35-year-old Kenneth J. Wallace, were shot multiple times and were pronounced dead at the scene.
The unidentified 26-year-old woman who was seated in the backseat was grazed on her right ankle and was taken to a hospital.
The Chicago Police Department has since sent out a statement about the controversial video, saying that sometimes “unique circumstances” prompt bodies to be left inside vehicles when being removed from the scene.
“From time to time, depending on the unique circumstances of the death, bodies may be left in vehicles and removed in private area at the ME’s office. This would be done to protect the integrity of the crime scene [the car] while at the same time preserving the dignity of the deceased by handling their bodies in a private area rather than on the street in full view of onlookers,” the statement reads, according to the Sun-Times. “CPD is sensitive to the handling of bodies in public, and detective bureau has implemented procedures to minimize any community concerns that may arise from the manner in which crime scenes are processed.”
Watch the NSFW video (contains offensive language) below:
Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times.