Carlishia Hood is suing the city of Chicago and five police officers after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all criminal charges against the 35-year-old and her 14-year-old son in the South Side restaurant fatal shooting.
Hood’s lawsuit claims that she “was falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted and that she has also suffered emotional distress.”
At a press conference, Hood said, “On June 18 of this year, my life changed, my son’s life changed,” adding, “Never in a million years would I have imagined being brutally attacked, beaten and then arrested.”
Per the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, “[b]ased upon the facts, evidence, and the law we are unable to meet our burden of proof in the prosecution of these cases.” State Attorney Kim Foxx added that they based their decision “upon our continued review and in light of emerging office.”
Hood and her son turned themselves into the police last week. They both were arrested, and Hood “was held on $3 million bail after she was charged…with first-degree murder and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”
She was released from the county jail after charges were dropped on Monday. This occurred after cell phone video footage was posted on social media over the weekend. The recording showed Jeremy Brown “yelling at Hood on June 18 to ‘get your food’ before threatening to ‘knock’ her out. He then punches Hood in the face and head several times.
Prosecutors said that Hood texted her son, who had been waiting outside, to come inside of the Maxwell Street Express restaurant. Then, Brown “was shot in the back by the teen and then ran from the restaurant. Hood and her son…followed Brown as Hood told the teen to continue shooting,” according to the AP. Brown was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Many are struggling to understand why prosecutors charged Hood and her son for Brown’s murder, when even their “own account of the shooting noted Brown had punched Hood before her son shot Brown.”
Brandon Brown, an attorney representing Hood said the call to arrest her was “an obvious rush to judgment.”
“You don’t have to be a lawyer to appreciate and recognize that when a woman is violently attacked by a man – an unarmed woman – that she shouldn’t be arrested,” says Brown, adding, “And if any one of you were to replace Carlishia Hood with your mother, with your sister, with your daughter; if your mother, or sister, or daughter were attacked in a restaurant when she’s trying to order a cheeseburger, would you expect that she would be arrested?”
“She was beaten for nothing,” said Hood’s attorney Ari Williams, continuing with “Ms. Hood doesn’t even understand how it built up. It was unnecessary. It was a vicious attack for no reason.”