An Illinois police department has released body camera footage of an altercation that prompted an excessive force lawsuit. The footage casts a new light on claims made by the accuser and shows that the officers were justified in their actions. See it above.
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The Incident
On the evening of Oct. 17, 2017, Officers William Killin and Dillon Holloway of the Champaign Police Department responded to a report of a battery at an apartment building on the 1500 block of Kiler Dr. in Champaign. At the beginning of the body camera footage, the officers are greeted in the stairwell by the upset woman who called the police.
“He’s got really bad anger problems … He gets really drunk sometimes,” the woman says of 62-year-old Alton Corey in between tears. “He threw all my stuff in the hallway and hit me in the head.”
The officers knock on Corey’s door. Corey opens the door and immediately goes on the offensive.
“What! What the f***!” Corey yells.
Killin and Holloway tell Corey to calm down. Corey refuses and tries to shut the door on the officers. Holloway puts his foot in the door and places his hand on Corey’s chest. He then backs up, and Corey—belligerently—starts to tell the officers what led to the assault.
“This here ho gonna come in my house and gonna say this and say that. I said ‘Leave my house. Leave my house. Leave me alone.’ I went to the hospital to get a procedure today. I got a defibrillator,” he yells.
The officers keep attempting to get Corey to calm down, but he continues acting aggressively and using profanities.
Killin then tells Corey to look at him, but Corey refuses and throws his arms up. In his incident report, Killin writes that Corey batted his left arm when he raised his arms up. In response, Killin pushes him. Corey falls back, but then moves toward Killin and Holloway.
The two officers grabbed Holloway. The momentum pulls Corey face-first into the the door across the hallway. He is then brought down to the ground and handcuffed.
Alton Corey’s Lawsuit
Corey has filed a lawsuit as a result of the incident, accusing the officers of excessive force, false arrest, conspiracy, malicious prosecution & unlawful detention, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In the complaint—which includes none of the details mentioned above—Corey says the officers “both grabbed Plaintiff and slammed Plaintiff face-first into the opposing wall/door and floor with an incredible amount of force.”
Champaign Police Response
Killin writes in his use of force incident report that he “pushed Alton backwards to create space for my safety and told him to stay back. Alton charged me with his hands up toward my face and I used the SPEAR technique to stop Alton’s momentum. I then grabbed Alton to take him to the ground to place him in custody.
“A combination of Alton’s momentum, the narrow hallway, and Officer Holloway and I pulling Alton toward us caused Alton to impact the door across the hallway face first,” Killin adds.
Corey’s lawsuit is still pending.
“The city’s legal department is reviewing the complaint and gathering all relevant information regarding the pending litigation,” said Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Bannon. “The city of Champaign and the Champaign Police Department take these allegations very seriously.”
