As previously reported by REVOLT, earlier this month, Carlishia Hood, 35, was standing in line at a fast food restaurant in Chicago when another patron, 32-year-old Jeremy Brown, began arguing with her. The irate man then punched the woman in the face several times before her 14-year-old son intervened in her defense, shooting and killing the offender.
The Black woman and her son were both arrested and accused of first-degree murder. Yesterday (June 26), prosecutors announced the charges would be dismissed. Hood is now filing a lawsuit against the city of Chicago and five police officers, ABC 7 shared today (June 27). “On June 18 of this year, my life changed. My son’s life changed. Never in a million years would I have imagined being brutally attacked, beaten, and then arrested,” the 35-year-old said at a news conference after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all criminal charges.
Footage also surfaced of the mother and son emotionally embracing one another for the first time since the arrest — see here. “I just got teary-eyed watching the video of Carlishia Hood and her son being reunited after they both got out! I’m so glad they are free!” a user tweeted today. “This Carlishia Hood story is so diluted, disturbing, [and] sad. And the fact that her son was more of a man than any ‘man’ present in that video is even more sad. And the way the Chicago news is trying to portray the story and [villainize] everyone but the actual villain is telling,” another person added.
Many continued to send the family well wishes. “I hope Carlishia Hood starts a GoFundMe to help move her and her son out of Chicago,” one person posted. “Praying for the protection of Carlishia Hood [and] her son,” another wrote. ABC 7 legal analyst Gil Soffer thanked the viral cellphone footage of the attack for helping the woman and her son to go free. “What this leaked video did was is it really flipped the prosecutor’s view of the case,” he said. Hood’s attorney Brandon Brown, added, “When a woman is violently attacked by a man, an unarmed woman, then she shouldn’t be arrested. If your mother or sister or daughter were attacked in a restaurant when she is trying to order a cheeseburger, would you expect that she would be arrested?”
See what others are saying below.