{"id":13557,"date":"2012-08-13T23:10:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T03:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=13557"},"modified":"2012-08-13T23:10:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T03:10:51","slug":"off-duty-police-officer-shoots-dead-outraged-father-who-confronted-him-after-he-mowed-down-his-four-year-old-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/08\/off-duty-police-officer-shoots-dead-outraged-father-who-confronted-him-after-he-mowed-down-his-four-year-old-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-duty police officer shoots dead outraged father who confronted him after he mowed down his four-year-old daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An unnamed, off-duty officer has killed the father of a little girl he crashed into late Saturday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Authorities say that Taniyah Middleton, 4, was crossing First Avenue in the Maywood section of Chicago with her older cousin when the officer approached on his motorcycle.<\/span><\/p>\n

He didn’t see the girl until it was too late, so he threw himself off the bike – which went skidding into the little girl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Middleton, 26, heard the accident and came rushing out and allegedly attacked the man who did it. He was shot and killed by the officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the police report, Taniyah Middleton rushed out into the road in front of the officer, not giving him enough time to stop his vehicle.<\/span><\/p>\n

He tried to avoid her, throwing himself off the bike, but the machine flew straight into the little girl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearing the commotion, father Christopher Middleton, 26, ran out to see what had happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Her face was skinned,’ Darrell Davis, Mr Middleton’s uncle, said to ABC.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Of course a father would be upset at the initial reaction of seeing the child in this condition and he confronted the guy and they got into a confrontation.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Middleton faced with a weeping daughter, flesh ripped off her face, flew into a rage, attacking the man who hurt his little girl.<\/span><\/p>\n

He and John Passley, 18, Taniyah’s cousin, both allegedly jumped onto the man, who they say never identified himself as a police officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Police say Mr Middleton struck the officer, a 43-year-old, eight-year veteran of the force, in the face and knocked him to the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two pummeled him until he was nearly ‘unconscious,’ Fraternal Order of Police Spokesman Pat Camden said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also insisted that the officer identified himself immediately to the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘He never let anyone know he was a police officer until after he shot him,’ witness Cordell Haggard said to ABC.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘While [Mr Middleton] was on top of the guy, fighting him, the guy somehow managed to reach for his weapon, and he fired it, and shot him right in his groin.’<\/span><\/p>\n

The officer was rushed to the hospital following the beating and Taniyah was also taken for treatment for contusions and abrasions. Passley was arrested following the alleged assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘She’s in a lot of pain right now,’ Mr Davis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The family has made a make-shift memorial in the spot that Mr Middleton, a father of three, was killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Chris was a great father,’ said Mr Middleton’s cousin, Mathis Hoskin. ‘He was always helpful, never mad – always happy with a smile on his face.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Friends and family have put up balloons, notes and photographs of Mr Middleton, who was engaged to be married on August 18.<\/span><\/p>\n

They want the police officer to be held accountable for his actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Maywood Police and Chicago’s Independent Police Review Authority are investigating the incident.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘We just want justice,’ said Mr Middleton’s cousin, Naomi Hoskin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unnamed, off-duty officer has killed the father of a little girl he crashed into late Saturday night. Authorities say that Taniyah Middleton, 4, was..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-us-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/article-2187970-1488F668000005DC-144_634x455_13557_29fe5.jpg?fit=634%2C455&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}