The city of Chicago will reportedly pay a $55,000 settlement to a woman who claimed she was shocked with a stun gun while eight months pregnant, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Tiffany Rent, 31, filed suit against the city after she was shocked with a stun gun by a police officer in front of her two young children in June.
Rent said she pulled into a handicapped parking spot in the Walgreen's lot on the 110 block of South Michigan Avenue while her fiance ran into the store. She then got out of the car to re-seat her 3-year-old when a Chicago police officer began writing her a ticket.
Police said she tore up the ticket and threw it at the officer. When the officer asked her for identification, police said she refused to comply.
Police said the officer deployed his stun gun when Rent tried to put her car in gear and drive away.
"I don't think that it should have went this far," she said. "It just makes me afraid of the Chicago Police Department because there's other women that may have went through this or that's going through this."
Attorney Keenan Saulter further argued a parking ticket is not a reason to use a stun gun.
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"A parking ticket," he said. "Not even a moving violation, but a parking ticket should not involve someone pulling out a Taser."
The accused officers claimed they did not know Rent was pregnant, but the officer who deployed the stun gun is under review.
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said stun guns should be used when overcoming assault or preventing escape and “you can’t always tell if somebody’s pregnant.”
Rent gave birth in July to a baby boy named Joseph.
