A female Chicago police officer who was beaten to the point of hospitalization Wednesday morning says she had the option of lethal force but did not use it for fear of public backlash.

The officer was one of three beaten and then hospitalized after she “encountered a man that police allege was violent and under the influence of drugs.”

According to ABC 7, the incident occurred after officers responded to a car accident “at Roosevelt and Cicero on the city’s West Side.” Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the female officer told him she knew she could have used lethal force, but she chose not to out of concern for what the department and her family would have to go through.

Johnson said, “She thought she was going to die. She knew that she should shoot this guy, but she chose not to, because she didn’t want her family or the department to have to go through the scrutiny the next day on national news.”

A nearby business captured the beating on surveillance camera. The business owner, who did not see the incident occur in real time, but on surveillance video only, said, “It is terrible. It is total disregard for law enforcement. They put their lives forward every day for us and to see somebody do this, to pummel the police officer is terrible. It is a terrible thing.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.