“I want the ex-officer to be really be held accountable, whatever that looks like,” Mia Irizarry said.
The woman who was harassed for wearing a Puerto Rico T-shirt at a Chicago forest preserve last month says she’s outraged that the police officer who ignored her pleas for help could resign without punishment.
Mia Irizarry, who captured the June 14 incident at the at Chicago’s Caldwell Woods forest preserve in a 36-minute Facebook Live video, read a statement Friday condemning the inaction of officer Patrick Connor as she was berated.
Connor resigned Wednesday as he was under investigation for his alleged inaction during the encounter. “I am severely disappointed I will never get to hear from this man, this officer, as to why my safety, no why my life, had so little value for him,” Irizarry, 24, said Friday.
“I want the ex-officer to be really be held accountable, whatever that looks like,” the veterinary technician later added. “Of all the people who have apologized to me, he hasn’t apologized to me.”
In the video that has since gone viral, an allegedly intoxicated man identified by police as Timothy Trybus, 62, repeatedly harasses and physically intimidates Irizarry over her t-shirt, and asks whether she is a U.S. citizen.
Irizarry said Friday that she felt Trybus was emboldened by the lack of police action, and credits the presence of her cousin Nathan Arroyo for keeping her harasser from turning physical.
Trybus appeared in court on Friday and a judge set bond at $10,000 with a condition of electronic monitoring. His attorney, David Goldman, said that Trybus has a problem with alcohol, and had been taking Tylenol with codeine after having six teeth pulled a day before the incident and then drank alcohol.
A longtime friend said Trybus is not a racist. John Bimmerle said Trybus has expressed regret over his actions, and Bimmerle said he is sure Trybus would apologize to Irizarry if given the opportunity. “He just said, ‘this was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life,'” Bimmerle told reporters.
Local Puerto Rican advocates demanded that Cook County Forest Preserve District officials continue to investigate Connor and consider docking his pension. Forest Preserve District General Superintendent Arnold Randall has said the officer’s file will reflect that he did not resign in good standing, with a note that he left the district with “discipline pending.”
