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Oak Park man accused of assaulting firefighter after son hit by car
Updated: April 29, 2013 10:24AM
OAK PARK — A father irate that his 11-year old son was injured by a passing car was arrested Thursday morning after, police say, he grabbed and elbowed an Oak Park fire fighter and grabbed his utility knife.
Police say Franklin Jackson, 45, of the 900 block of South Lyman Avenue, showed up at the accident scene on the 100 block of West Harrison Street about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, March 21.
“He was yelling about the whereabouts of his son,” Detective Cmdr. Ladon Reynolds said. “A battalion commander tried to calm him down and tell him his son was OK.”
Instead, police say, Jackson allegedly approached a firefighter and asked him the same question. Told the boy was in the ambulance and would be OK, Jackson reportedly grabbed the firefighter with both hands and shook the firefighter back and forth, asking, “The driver, where’s the driver?”
Jackson then allegedly hit the firefighter in the chest with his forearm and grabbed a utility knife out of the firefighter’s coat pocket, police say. When he turned around to look at the crowd watching the scene, police intervened and arrested him.
The boy was treated for minor injuries at Rush Oak Park Hospital and released.
Jackson was charged with battery and aggravated assault and held for a bond hearing.
The driver of the car that struck Jackson’s son was not ticketed. Reynolds said an investigation determined the boy had run out onto the street between two cars stopped in traffic and then into oncoming traffic, where he was struck.
