Student tackled by police, accused of stealing his own car settles suit with city

A former doctoral student who was tackled by police in 2015 after being accused of stealing his own car has reached a $1.25 million tentative settlement with a city in the Chicago suburbs, The Chicago Tribune reports.

Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz confirmed to the local newspaper that the settlement had been reached, though he reportedly declined to specify the amount pending an approval from the local city council at a meeting scheduled next week.

However, attorneys representing former Northwestern student Lawrence Crosby confirmed to the publication that the amount of the settlement reached was $1.25 million.

{mosads}The lawsuit stems from a 2015 incident, in which Crosby was reportedly tackled and arrested by local police after he was accused of stealing his own car.

Timothy Touhy, one of Crosby’s attorneys, told the newspaper that Crosby was trying to fix the molding on his car during the night of the incident when a woman alerted local police to report that an African-American man was attempting to steal a vehicle.

The woman then proceeded to follow Crosby as he began to drive off from his apartment to the university’s building to provide police with his location.

Footage of the arrest released from the Evanston Police Department showed Crosby exiting his car with both hands in the air once he was stopped by police.

Police could then be seen ordering Crosby to get on the ground and when he did not obey orders immediately he was tackled.

Police later learned that the car in question belonged to Crosby but the former student was still charged with disobeying officers and resisting police.

Touhy said a judge later tossed out the charges, however.

Crosby asked the city of Evanston and the arresting officers for at least $50,000 for “compensatory and punitive damages, fees, costs and such other relief,” according to the lawsuit seen by the Tribune. 

Steven Yonover, an attorney who represent Crosby, told the Tribune that the former student hopes “that as a result of this case, that all of us begin a discussion on implicit bias and begin to recognize it and begin to discuss it between yourselves and your friends.”