"Any fair-minded person acknowledges that police have a very difficult and dangerous job, and this sounds like a very unfortunate situation," Jon Loevy, a civil rights lawyer, said. "The hope is that the department and the community can work to repair some of the lost trust so that officers won't always feel so second-guessed."



The 43-year-old Austin District officer was one of three hospitalized after struggling with the man near Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue about 10 a.m., according to police. The 28-year-old man had been in a car involved in the crash, police said.



Officers had seen a car crash into a building and saw the man walking east on Roosevelt, away from the crash, according to a statement released by police. When the officers tried to talk to him about the crash, the man began struggling with them, hitting the female officer's head against the pavement until she lost consciousness, police said.



The officer's partner hit the man with a Taser and pepper spray, and he was arrested. Two other officers were injured arresting the man. All three officers were taken to Lutheran General. The man arrested was treated at Loretto Hospital.



In his remarks, Johnson said the attack went on "for several minutes."



"Just yesterday, we had an incident where officers responded to a simple traffic accident," Johnson said during the ceremony. "Traffic accident — now I want you to think about this for a moment. Responded to a traffic accident to render aid wherever they could. A subject who was under the influence of PCP attacked a female officer, viciously pounded her head into the street as her partner tried to get him off of her. And this attack went on for several minutes."



Asked whether the incident was an example of officers "laying back," Johnson said "it's an example of how dangerous this job is. And because of the scrutiny going on nationwide, there (are) officers second-guessing themselves. That's what we don't want."



Johnson said he didn't know all the details of the attack and so couldn't say for certain if shooting the man would have been justified.