The Freeport Police Department in Illinois is under fire after arresting an African American hospital patient while he was walking outside of a hospital attached to an IV drip, treating his double pneumonia.
Shaquille Dukes, 24, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct after a security guard called police accusing the man of stealing medical equipment.
On a Facebook post, Dukes says he was on vacation when he became ill and checked into FHN Memorial Hospital in Freemont, about 100 miles west of Chicago. He'd asked his doctors if he could go for a walk outside, just as he stepped out of the hospital doors, the security guard accused him and his brother and boyfriend of attempting to steal the equipment and sell it on e-Bay.
"I was livid, I was irate," Dukes told CNN. "The first thing he said to me wasn't, 'What's your name? Can I help you?' but 'Are you stealing this?'" The guard then called the police.
When the police arrived they arrested Dukes, his brother and boyfriend were all arrested, according to a Freemont police press release posted on Facebook. All three men were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduction, and two were charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest.
Dukes says police officers took his emergency inhaler and removed his IV.
The police returned Dukes back to the hospital, but this time in handcuffs.