Patient With IV Drip Arrested While Walking Outside Hospital

FREEPORT, Ill. (CBS Local) — A black hospital patient in Illinois says he was racially profiled by white police officers when he was arrested last month while taking a walk wearing a gown with an IV drip.

Shaquille Dukes, 24, was being treated at FHN Memorial Hospital in Freeport last month for asthma and pneumonia. On June 9, he said he was feeling better and asked doctors if he could go for a walk.

Dukes said he went outside with his boyfriend and his brother, still wearing his hospital gown and pushing a steroid and antibiotic IV drip.

During the walk, a white security guard stopped Dukes and accused him of trying to leave the hospital in order to sell the hospital equipment on eBay.

Dukes said his boyfriend began recording the encounter, as Dukes was trying to explain to the security guard that they were on a walk.

The guard called for police backup and the responding officers arrested all three men, charging them with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Two of the men were also charged with resisting arrest, according to police.

The incident was captured on cell phone video in three parts. The first video has been viewed more than 157,000 times on Facebook.

Dukes said he suffered an asthma attack while officers transported him to the police department and that officers withheld his asthma inhaler from him until they arrived. He told CNN he was then transported back to the hospital in handcuffs.

Dukes filed a complaint “alleging unfair and biased conduct by responding officers,” the Freeport Police Department confirmed Sunday in a statement.

The department said it has retained a third-party investigator to “gather the facts, interview all parties involved, and determine whether officers conducted themselves in adherence to department policies and guidelines.”