Two women and a man in Illinois are facing felony charges after allegedly beating and strangling a police officer who pulled them over for a traffic stop. just outside of Chicago.
The Aurora Police Department announced Tuesday, June 22, that 28-year-old Paul Sherrod, 24-year-old Jennifer Taylor, and 26-year-old Sheba Taylor have been charged with aggravated battery, resisting arrest, causing injury to a police officer, and the aggravated assault of a peace officer.
A male officer, whose name has yet to be released, pulled the vehicle over for a traffic stop around 10:30 p.m. Monday. Paul Sherrod, the driver at the time, allegedly rolled through a stop sign near the intersection of Plum Street and Randall Road near West Aurora High School, Fox 32 Chicago reported.
Sherrod pulled into a driveway in the 600 block of North Elmwood Drive. Jennifer and Sheba Taylor, the two women who were in the car “began yelling obscenities out the window,” according to a press release from the police department.
One of the women who was sitting in the back seat got out of the car, and the officer “ordered her back into the car several times before informing her that she was under arrest for obstruction,” police said. Sherrod continued to yell, approached the officer, and told the officer he would fight him if he touched the female passenger.
Sherrod took off running and the officer ran after him, and soon the two women Jennifer and Sheba got out of the car and ran as well.
It is still not clear which Taylor sister was in the back seat during the traffic stop, but police said “the female rear passenger approached the officer as they ran,” and the officer then “turned around and grabbed her arm to take her into custody, but she slipped out of his grip.”
“The two women struck the officer, kicking his body and head,” police said. “The officer heard a male’s voice and then was struck repeatedly in the head from several angles.” The female passenger “placed her forearm around the officer’s neck and applied significant force to his windpipe, causing him to lose the ability to breathe,” according to the department.
“I am at a loss of words when an officer is physically attacked from something that would have been a simple traffic ticket,” Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said in a statement. “We will not allow our city to become a place where criminals feel emboldened, and lawlessness ensues.”
