Vol. 76/No. 23      June 11, 2012

According to the cop version of what took place Nov. 6, they were responding to a report of a domestic dispute when they arrived at the building where Hanna rented an apartment. Cops claim Hanna’s girlfriend, Dionne Wilcox, ran from the building naked and wet, crying that Hanna had tried to drown her. When they entered the apartment, cops say, Hanna lunged at them fists clenched yelling, “Shoot me, shoot me.”

Hanna’s relatives blew holes in the cops’ story when they played a police audio recording at the April 9 North Chicago City Council meeting, indicating Hanna was not resisting but pleading for his life.

“Put me down, please. I’m about to die,” Hanna is heard on the tape. “I was down. They’re killing me!”

“The young woman who was Darrin Hanna’s girlfriend, and who gave birth to his daughter on Jan. 31, said Hanna did not try to drown her,” the Lake County News-Sun reported May 2, in another blow to the cop frame-up.

In the interview Wilcox, 21, of Waukegan said she and Hanna did have an argument that night.

“Wilcox said she took a bath to calm down and that she and Hanna were sitting on the end of the bed in the dark when police broke through the apartment door with their guns drawn,” reported the News-Sun.

“Hanna did not yell ‘Shoot me, shoot me,’ as officers reported, Wilcox said, but stood up and walked toward the door.” Wilcox ran from the apartment, she told the paper, out of fear of being shot. “I heard the guns click—I didn’t want my baby to get shot”

As the cops’ story unravels, residents of North Chicago and surrounding communities, led by Carr and Hanna’s cousin Ralph Peterson, continue to speak out at City Council meetings demanding prosecution of the cops responsible, exposing in the process other instances of cop brutality.

Since 2005 a number of excessive force complaints have been filed against the North Chicago cops, including 10 resulting in federal lawsuits, 12 pending cases and four related deaths.

Lake County State’s Attorney Mike Waller decided the police used “reasonable force” in arresting Hanna. But an internal investigation commissioned by the city resulted in the firing of cop Brandon Yost, who had already applied for a disability pension, and a 30-day suspension of another, Arthur Strong.

The Hanna family, their supporters and Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of Rainbow/Push Coalition, attended the May 7 City Council meeting, demanding further action against the cops. Following a heated exchange, the council voted to call upon Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Justice Department to carry out their own criminal investigations into Hanna’s killing.

“Firing Yost and giving Strong 30 days is not enough,” Peterson told the Militant. “Strong lied throughout the entire investigation. This is far from over.”

On April 20 the U.S. Department of Justice told the Chicago Tribune that it has begun a preliminary inquiry into the case. Hanna’s family filed a civil wrongful death suit in federal court Dec. 13.  
 
 
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