Illinois Hero Beats Up 70-Year-Old Man

A Hoopeston, Illinois family are accusing officers of brutality after an early morning May 16 encounter between their father and local cops was caught on film.

The family says that Hoopeston police barged in without warning and detained their 70-year-old father, who suffers from COPD, emphysema, brain aneurisms, high blood pressure and strokes, after officer T. Showers shined a bright light in his face when he was already informed it could cause seizures.

As a result of pleading to please shine the light out of his eyes, the family says, the police entered a private residence without permission or probable cause and detained the senior citizen for no reason.

The video, posted to various social media outlets, shows the man’s son calmly ask an officer for his badge number.

“Can I please have your badge number,” the man says before the officer immediately smacks away the recording device.

“So, that’s my options?” the elderly man can be heard asking. “I can either get medical attention, or I can go to jail?”

An officer can be heard responding that those were indeed his options.

The senior citizen was latter released without charges but required medical attention for cuts and gashes on his arms. It is not yet clear how those injuries were sustained and the footage appears not to have captured what caused them.

Hoopeston police say they have opened an investigation in to the incident and witnesses are being interviewed.

Once the investigation is done, police say, the results will be handed over to the local police commissioner’s board for review.

Local news coverage containing raw footage: