Shaquille Dukes was a*rrested and a*ccused of s*tealing an IV machine he was still attached to outside of a Freeport, Ill. hospital. (Photo: Facebook via Shaquille Dukes)
A walk outside of an Illinois h*ospital turned into a d*isorderly c*onduct ch*arge for one Black patient.
Shaquille Dukes, 24, said he was r*acially profiled and a*ccused of s*tealing an IV machine he was still connected to outside of FHN Memorial Ho*spital on June 9, according to the Journal-Standard.
The i*ncident happened just after 4 p.m. in Freeport, Illinois, which is about 115 miles northwest of Chicago.
Dukes had been admitted to the h*ospital for double p*neumonia and a*sthma-related issues and was on d*octors’ orders to walk around a bit but to remain on h*ospital grounds, the Journal Standard reported.
So he walked in the area with his brother.
“I was stopped by an o*verzealous, r*acist, security o*fficer, who claimed that I ‘was trying to leave the h*ospital to sell the IV equipment on eBay,'” Dukes said in a Facebook post.
At the time, he and his brother were on their way back from their walk.
The guard, employed by FHN, noticed the IV machine and asked them to follow him across the street, the Journal Standard reported.
“I told him, ‘This machine is pumping fluid into my veins as we speak.'”
After some back-and-forth between the men, the security o*fficer called Freeport p*olice o*fficers who arrived to the scene 40 minutes later.
Dukes said his brother was a*rrested first, then him and a third man, who was recording the i*ncident.
P*olice told Dukes he was being a*rrested on an attempted th*eft ch*arge because he took medical equipment off of h*ospital property.
But Dukes shared in one of the videos he posted on Facebook that he only left the h*ospital’s property when the security guard instructed him to cross the street.
It’s unclear why the other men were a*rrested.
Dukes said in the Facebook statement that his IV was removed during the i*ncident and his rescue i*nhaler was seized.
“I pleaded with o*fficers for almost 4 minutes to retrieve my i*nhaler from the transporting o*fficer, and finally, when I became unresponsive, it miraculously appeared,” Dukes said in the post.
Freeport p*olice Lt. Andrew Schroeder rebutted Dukes’ version to a reporter and said o*fficers got Dukes m*edical attention when they noticed he needed it.
“An ambulance was summoned for him and he was taken back to the h*ospital,” Schroeder told the Journal Standard.
Dukes said he ended up passing out and having a seizure in the a*mbulance as it headed back to the h*ospital.
He later f*iled a complaint with the city of Freeport and said in a News Maven web story that the i*ncident would not have happened if he were a white patient.
After receiving video of the inci*dent, the hos*pital released the following statement to the Journal Standard: “We are looking into this but as of now, it is a p*olice matter.”
Schroeder later told the Journal Standard that a p*olice i*nvestigation revealed Dukes had no intention of stealing the IV machine.
He’s scheduled to appear in c*ourt July 11 on the d*isorderly c*onduct ch*arge.
“The issue here is that his actions were why he was a*rrested,” Schroeder told the Journal Standard. “Had they been able to engage in a civil discourse with h*ospital security, we wouldn’t have been called at all.”
See photos and videos HERE