Woman plans lawsuit after charges against her and son dropped in West Pullman restaurant shooting
A Chicago woman plans to file a lawsuit after the Cook COunty State's Attorney's Office dropped charges against her in a fatal restaurant shooting in West Pullman.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago woman plans to file a lawsuit Tuesday after charges against her and her son were dropped in a deadly shooting at a South Side restaurant.
Attorneys for Carlisha Hood said she will speak publicly for the first time at a news conference Tuesday morning, where the attorneys will plan to present a lawsuit.
This comes after the Cook County State's Attorney's Office dropped all criminal charges against her and her 14-year-old son.
The charges stemmed from an incident at a hot dog stand on June 18 in the 11600-block of South Halsted Street.
Police said Hood was arguing with a man in line. That's when police said her 14-year-old son came in. As he is watching from the doorway, police and witnesses said the man arguing with his mother, who has been identified as 32-year-old Jeremy Brown, repeatedly punches Hood in the head.
The attack was captured on cell phone video, which went viral after it was shared by a local activist.
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Police said as his mother is being hit, the teen fired his gun repeatedly at Brown, shooting him in the back. Police said Brown ran out, and the the mother and son did too, with the son still shooting.
Brown was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. Hood and her son were later charged with first-degree murder.
"No one else in the establishment did anything. And so, once he saw his mother get severely hit, he took action," said community activist Ja'Mal Green.
In addition to the murder charge, the woman had faced a felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, CPD said.
But Monday, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office dropped all charges saying in a statement that, "based upon the facts, evidence and the law, we were unable to meet our burden."
"What this leaked video did was is it really flipped the prosecutor's view of the case," ABC7 Legal Analyst Gil Soffer said. "Before seeing this, they clearly were of the view that the defendant was the aggressor. Now, they are of the view that the person they had formerly seen as the victim was the aggressor."
Hood's attorneys said she has always been the victim and that the wrongful charges have caused great harm to her and her family's reputation, so a lawsuit will be filed Tuesday.
Anti-violence groups said they've been responding to a recent uptick in shootings in the West Pullman neighborhood. Since May 23, there have been eight shootings and five homicides in the area, according to their count.
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Source: WLS-TV
