(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A family has filed a lawsuit after a suburban man suffered extensive injuries last winter when he was dropped off in the cold by two police officers.
On December 5, 2020, 24-year-old Quasai Alkafaween was discharged from Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. He was disoriented, and had been suffering from a mental health crisis, attorneys at Clifford Law Offices said.
Two New Lenox police officers drove him to an Orland Park parking lot at night and dropped him off, with no coat or cell phone. Alkafaween, who lived in Worth, said didn't know where he was.
"You ask police officers to follow policies and procedures," Jack Casciato, law partner at Clifford Law Offices, said at a news conference Wednesday. "These police officers are not mental-health professionals. When you're dealing with somebody suffering from a mental health issue, you're to take that person to an approved mental health facility."
Body-cam footage shows an officer telling Alkafaween to start walking down a busy street. He wandered into traffic and was hit by a car, suffering traumatic brain injuries.
"This was a young, thriving person who came from Jordan to the United States to enroll in school, like so many people who come here to find a better life," Casciato said. "And that was taken away from him in a split second by police officers. All they had to do was take him to a hospital instead of leave him haphazardly in an intersection that they randomly chose."
The lawsuit against the New Lenox Police Department, Silver Cross Hospital and other defendants seeks damages for Alkafaween and his family. He continues to undergo rehabilitation, attorneys said.
"Qusai, today, is a shell of the man he once was, unfortunately,” attorney Mohammed Owaynat said.
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