Update: EIU Swimmer Held By Police At Gunpoint Ends Lawsuit

From WVIK in the Quad Cities: The ACLU of Illinois says Jaylan Butler, the only Black member of the Eastern Illinois University men’s swim team, has ended the lawsuit he filed against police officers in the Quad Cities who mistakenly detained him. In 2019, while traveling home with teammates from a swim meet, Butler was forced to the ground and handcuffed by police, at the I-80 rest stop in Rock Island County.

In an interview last year on “The 21st”, Butler said he tried to explain himself. “You know, I kept trying to like get them to understand that I was on the swim team and that I could not possibly done anything wrong. After I said all that, another officer kind of knelt down beside me, and placed his handgun up to my forehead, and told me that if I kept moving, he would blow my head off.”

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