Family of UIC transfer student suing New Lenox hospital, police department after brain injury
CHICAGO - The family of a University of Illinois Chicago transfer student from Jordan is suing Silver Cross Hospital and New Lenox police.
On Wednesday, attorneys from Clifford Law Offices detailed police bodycam footage showing what they call reckless conduct.
In December of 2020, 24-year-old Qusai Alkafaween was taken to Silver Cross Hospital for psychiatric issues. Instead of being admitted, police were asked to assist him off the property.
His attorneys say he was still disoriented when two New Lenox officers abandoned him in a parking lot with no coat and no cellphone.
"You know where you're going from here?" an officer can be heard saying on bodycam video.
"No," Qusai responds.
"Ok. You live in Orland Park right?" the officer said.
"You want to help me with that?" Qusai said.
"This is as far as I can take you right now," the officer responded.
A second bodycam video shows a responding officer who remained at the hospital.
"Because we're not taking him all the way to Chicago and we're not taking him all the way to Orland Park, so hopefully he doesn't ping-pong and come back here to you guys," the second officer can be heard saying on video.
Qusai later wandered into traffic and was hit by a car, suffering a traumatic brain injury.
His family says if he was treated properly by police and hospital staff, the traffic incident would've never occurred.