(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Family, friends, and activists are asking for more information about the death of a woman who died in Chicago police custody Dec. 18.
Jessica Disu said police told her 33-year-old Irene Chavez was detained following a fight at a bar at 71st and Jeffrey early that morning.
Disu, a friend of the woman’s, said Chavez reportedly was left alone in a room for processing at the third district police station at 70th and Cottage Grove. When officers returned an hour later, Disu says, Chavez was dead.
Police told her that Chavez hanged herself, she said.
Disu led a march Monday on the station, where a temporary memorial was set up with photographs of a smiling Irene Chavez, Christmas decorations, sports jerseys from her favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
Disu said she wants more information about her friend’s death because Chavez wouldn't take her own life.
"She wasn't suicidal. She had huge plans for the future. She was going back to school and was an administrator at Northwestern Medicine," she said.
Disu is looking for body-camera video from the officers who responded to the bar as well as surveillance video from the police station.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating Chavez's death.
A Go Fund Me page has been launched to help pay for funeral expenses.
Contributing: Chicago Sun-Times Media Wire
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