By Kim Janssen and Frank Main
Chicago Sun Times
CHICAGO — An off-duty Cook County sheriff’s officer was filmed standing just yards away as a CVS employee strangled a shoplifter Saturday, Chicago Police acknowledged Monday.
A day after Chicago Police said they were unaware of the off-duty correctional officer’s presence during Anthony Kyser’s final moments, Chicago Police spokeswoman Lt. Maureen Biggane said the officer dialed 911 from the scene and identified herself.
Kyser, 35, an unemployed barber with a history of drug and burglary arrests, was choked to death after stealing toothpaste and crayons from a CVS in Little Village, officials said. Police, who returned to the scene Monday, say the death was “accidental” and that the CVS employee won’t be charged.
But police and eyewitness accounts still differ on what exactly the officer did as Kyser died. Conflicts remain as to whether she drew a weapon or left the scene before Chicago Police arrived.
Shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday, an employee chased Kyser from the store and put him in a choke hold for what seemed like several minutes as three other men held Kyser down in an alley in the 2600 block of South Pulaski, witnesses told the Sun-Times. As the correctional officer pointed a weapon at Kyser and told him to stop struggling, Kyser repeatedly pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, the witnesses said.
Biggane said a surveillance video shows the correctional officer in the alley, speaking on a cell phone, but does not show her pointing a weapon. The officer waited for an ambulance to arrive, but left before uniformed Chicago Police arrived, Biggane said.
Police wouldn’t release the correctional officer’s identity. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Patterson said there is nothing for the sheriff to investigate, based on Chicago Police’s account of her actions.
But sources who’ve seen the tape say it shows the officer holding a gun behind her back while talking to Kyser as he struggles. The melee began when Kyser punched the employee chasing him, they said.
Two witnesses who live by the alley told the Sun-Times the officer never told the CVS employee to release his hold on Kyser.
And witness Jessica Elabed said the off-duty officer was at the scene when Chicago cops arrived. The off-duty officer told the Chicago Police that Kyser was to blame for the incident before getting in her car and driving away, Elabed said.
CVS has suspended the man who strangled Kyser.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.