3 Boys Arrested After Rock Thrown From Overpass Injures Cop

CHICAGO — A Chicago police sergeant suffered a laceration to her arm after authorities say three boys — ages 10 to 11 — threw rocks from an overpass in the 2500 block of West Cermak Road. Police said the on-duty sergeant was driving around 8:38 p.m. Tuesday when rocks thrown from the overpass shattered her windshield.

The three boys were taken in to the 10th District for further investigation and charged with misdemeanor trespassing before being released to family members.

Police said the sergeant was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and released.

In a separate incident just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, five vehicles traveling south in the 11700 block of Michigan Avenue were also damaged when someone dropped bricks and rocks from an overpass. No injuries were reported, but the vehicles' windshields were damaged.

No one is in custody in the Michigan Avenue incident, police said.

Rock-throwing incidents like the ones in Chicago have proven deadly in other states. In Michigan, four juveniles throwing rocks from an I-75 overpass were charged in the October 2017 death of 32-year-old Kenneth White, who was killed when a six-pound rock went through his windshield as he was driving. The teens, ages 15 to 17 at the time of the incident, were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty this year to a reduced charge of manslaughter, according to WXYZ in Michigan.

In another incident two months later, also on I-75 — this one in Toledo, Ohio — a 22-year-old Michigan man was killed when four teenagers dropped a sandbag onto a bridge, hitting a vehicle. Marquise Byrd, a passenger in the car, was killed. A 13-year-old confessed to throwing the sandbag that killed Byrd. A judge initially sentenced three of the juveniles, all age 14, to four-year suspended sentences and the 13-year-old to remain in custody until his 21st birthday, but later suspended those sentences in favor of sending the four boys to a youth treatment facility, CNN reported.