Dissatisfied with the Illinois State Police investigation of a June 5 arrest, the City of Champaign is seeking a more complete report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On Nov. 19, the city issued a press release expressing concerns about the arrest, which was later revealed to concern the pepper spraying and alleged choking of a 19-year-old African-American male.

The state police, asked to investigate the incident by both the city and state’s attorney, concluded its investigation Nov. 22, hours before the city council met for a Tuesday night study session. State police agreed with the original findings of the Champaign Police, which said that the officer acted appropriately in the incident.

But the city found the state police investigation to be insufficient, announcing during the city council meeting that they would ask the FBI to conduct a full investigation and proposed hiring an independent firm to review the police department’s use of force policies.

“I don’t think there’s a member of the city council that’s delighted that the (state police) took a superficial look at it,” said Tom Bruno, Champaign City Council member at-large. “I don’t care what the FBI’s conclusion is, so long as they do an investigation.”

The video of the arrest was anonymously posted Nov. 21 on the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center’s website. The video showed the arrest and its aftermath as captured by cameras mounted on the police vehicle. It shows officers apprehending a man jaywalking while crossing Fourth Street along Green Street, who was pepper sprayed after an officer found him to be uncooperative.

After his arrest, the police vehicle leaves the intersection and pulls over as the video switches to showing the backseat of the cruiser where the man was seated. In the video, the man repeatedly asks to speak to another officer while the arresting officer asks for identification. The video then shows the officer lunging at the handcuffed man, appearing to briefly choke him. “As soon as I watched the video, I knew that it was very troubling,” said Mark Lipton, a defense attorney representing the arrestee.

Charges of resisting arrest were officially dismissed Nov. 15, according to Champaign County court records.

The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police joined the state police in supporting the Champaign Police, chastising city officials for their criticism of police actions with limited information.

“These individuals have absolutely no police or use of force training and base their opinions on a snippet of a video that was actually nearly an hour long,” said Tamara Cummings, attorney for the police union, in a press release.

Champaign city manager, Steve Carter, said a more complete investigation­­ — which would include “identifying and contacting witnesses” — would give city officials a more complete picture of what happened, beyond existing documents and the video. Carter added that the city had promised the family a complete investigation of the arrest.

W.S. Davis, Jr., a family member of the arrestee, said at the city council meeting that he was glad the FBI would be following up on the investigation. Later, he added that he spoke to his relative about the incident, asking him why he left the police cruiser after he was choked. He said the arrestee told him in response that he “didn’t want to die in there.”

According to the original press release sent Nov. 19, the officer in question has been reassigned to “duties within the police department building.” Carter and Deputy Chief Holly Nearing said they would not discuss personnel issues when asked which Champaign officer was taken off the street as a result of the arrest.