JaQuwaun Williams, shown with his grandmother Lynida Williams-Saddler at their Gresham home, was struck by an off-duty police officer outside his former school earlier this year. - Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS
A Chicago police officer is under investigation for striking an eighth grade boy earlier this year as at least one school employee and the teen’s classmates looked on, the Tribune has learned. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office began looking into Officer Craig Lancaster’s off-duty conduct after a surveillance recording emerged showing him hitting a 14-year-old student near his throat as the boy walked into school. The video does not show the teen interacting with Lancaster before the physical contact or doing anything obvious to provoke it. The incident lasted less than 30 seconds, but ...
