Police in Chicago on Tuesday used a Taser on a women who is eight months pregnant over a dispute that occurred after she parked in a handicapped space.
Tiffany Rent pulled into the handicapped space at a Walgreens because she was trying to console her young daughter, Rent’s sister, Sharita Rent, told CBS Chicago.
“The police came behind her, and they say they blocked her in,” Shareeta Rent explained. “She asked them, were they writing her a ticket, and they told her yes.”
“She tried to explain to them what happened, as far as her little getting out of the car, and her trying to calm her down and console her, and the guy gave her a ticket for $200. She ripped the ticket up and threw it on the ground.”
The sister also claimed that police hurled insults at Rent.
“They all made little nasty, cruel comments – one guy said, ‘Does she have a hernia or something,’ and the other one told her to call Jesse Jackson. Another one said that she deserved it,” Sharita Rent said. “And I’m thinking, how cruel is that? How could you be that cruel to a human being? A pregnant human being?”
A police source confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that officers used a Taser on Rent and took her into custody. Joseph Hobbs, who is Rent’s boyfriend and the father of her child, had his elbow dislocated while trying to intervene.
A nursing supervisor at Roseland Community Hospital, where Rent was taken for treatment, told the Tribune that the fetus was apparently unharmed. But Rent’s family said she planned to undergo more test because she had previously “lost three babies.”
“We’re going to file complaints and go from there and hope to God something is done about this,” Shareeta Rent said. “This is ridiculous.”
Both Rent and Hobbs were charged with resisting arrest and simple assault. Officers also issued another citation for parking in a handicapped space. The couple was scheduled to attend a court hearing on Wednesday morning.
The Supreme Court recently declined to hear the appeal of a Seattle woman who, while pregnant, was shocked with a Taser three times when she refused to get out of her car to sign a ticket for speeding in a school zone.
