Student Tackled for 'Stealing' Own Car Settles for $1.25M

A Chicago suburb has tentatively agreed to pay a former doctoral student $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit alleging police officers tackled him to the ground and arrested him for stealing a car that turned out to be his own, his attorney said. Evanston City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz confirmed a settlement was reached with Lawrence Crosby, who was 25 and an engineering doctoral student at Northwestern University in 2015 when the incident occurred, the AP reports. Bobkiewicz declined to provide the amount of the settlement pending final approval by the City Council next week but Crosby's attorney, Timothy Touhy, told the Chicago Tribune that the amount was $1.25 million.

Touhy said Crosby was trying to repair loose molding on his car when a woman called police to report a black man trying to steal a car. When he drove off, the woman followed Crosby in her car as he drove from his apartment to Northwestern's science building, giving police his location. Dashcam video shows Crosby got out of the car with his hands raised after being stopped by police but was tackled when he failed to immediately obey orders to get on the ground. Police later determined the car belonged to Crosby but still charged him with disobeying officers and resisting arrest. A judge later threw out the charges. (Last week, a Chicago ex-cop was sentenced to seven years for shooting a black teenager.)