Accusations of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon have been brought against a recently hired Chicago police officer for allegedly frightening one of his neighbors with a handgun in August.
According to a CPD document, Raekwon Livingston, 24, was detained at the Chicago police academy, 1300 West Jackson, around 6:50 a.m. on Friday. The report stated that on Friday morning, CPD also informed COPA, Chicago’s police oversight organization.
The arrest of Livingston is the most recent in a string of alarming incidents in Chicago involving rookie cops and fresh recruits.
On August 27, about 9 a.m., he is accused of drawing a revolver on a neighbor who was walking a dog in the 1100 block of North Howe. However, the incident is documented in a police record that is dated August 30.
The claimed threat allegedly occurred less than a block from the 1160 North Larrabee police station in the Near North (18th) District. It is a misdemeanor to be charged.
Other recent charges against prospective and newly-minted Chicago police officers include the killing of a probationary Chicago police officer during a suspected road rage incident in September, only days after she was suspended for reportedly failing a drug test. The woman is no longer employed by the police force.
According to a Schiller Park Police Department report, CPD recruits Denisse Balseca resisted cooperating with suburban police officers during a traffic check in August and then assaulted, kicked, and shoved officers who attempted to take her to jail.
How else was I supposed to get away? the recruit allegedly said when an officer showed her the harm she had done to him.
Officers in Schiller Park made the decision not to press criminal charges against Balseca, 27, but she was nonetheless accused of breaking local laws.
Davin Jones, a 27-year-old CPD trainee, was detained in June close to the Field Museum on suspicion of having a gun in his car and obstructing the rear license plate. Jones was detained after the incident because, according to the prosecution, he “got verbally hostile” with the officers.
According to documents from prosecutors and CPD, cops observed Jones concealing his car’s rear license plate with a sweater while it was unlawfully parked outside the Field Museum.
A verbal incident between Jones and the cops started when the clothes were taken off the license plate, according to a CPD spokesperson. Prosecutors claim that after police apprehended Jones, they discovered a loaded 40-calibre handgun in the glove compartment of his car. They also claim that Jones does not possess a license for concealed carry.
They accused Jones of criminal illegal firearm usage as well as misdemeanor registration plate altering. According to authorities, he also received traffic tickets.
