Snowball case ends for Austin boy


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The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday that a 13-year-old Austin boy no longer faces felony charges after a police officer was hit with a snowball near George Leland Elementary last month.

A spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told the Tribune. “We just don’t believe the matter rises to any level of a criminal charge based on our review.”

The boy said he was with about 15 other students Feb. 19th near Leland Elementary (known as May Elementary up until last year) when someone threw the snowball. The boy said it hit the squad car rather than the officer, though in an earlier story by DNAinfo Chicago, police said the snowball had hit the officer.

In an interview with Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner, the boy said the officer asked him questions for about half an hour as he sat handcuffed in the back of a squad car.

After being taken home briefly, the boy and his mother said he was taken to a police station, arrested for aggravated battery to a police officer and released to his mom after spending about six hours in lock up.

The boy, an 8th grader at Leland, was suspended for five days from school and fears the arrest will affect his changes of getting into one of the city’s elite high schools.

To read the rest of the story, including what experts had to say about the boy’s arrest, click here.

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