A Chicago cop tasked with protecting a top City Council leader was charged this week with battering the mother of his child, months after she was granted a protective order following another alleged attack.
Officer Roderick Hummons, 49, was stripped of his police powers and ordered to hand over his weapons after he was charged Monday with a misdemeanor count of domestic battery, according to court records and the police department.
Hummons is accused of choking and hitting his child’s mother at his apartment on the Near West Side, according to an arrest report obtained by the Sun-Times. Officers said she had visible bruising and cuts on her face.
Hummons was assigned to Unit 544, which handles security for city officials, including Mayor Brandon Johnson.
A spokesperson for Ald. Pat Dowell, chair of the powerful Finance Committee, said Hummons worked on her security detail and has now been removed. Dowell’s spokesperson noted that Hummons and other officers are regularly rotated among city officials’ security teams.
An attorney for Hummons didn’t respond to a request for comment.
He was taken into custody early Monday after officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at his home. The woman’s mother had called 911 after she witnessed Hummons attacking her daughter during a FaceTime call, according to the arrest report.
Hummons told responding officers that his child’s mother had doused him in baby oil while he was sleeping, the report says. He said the woman had also struck him and cut his ear.
She told police that she poured oil on him because she suspected he had been cheating on her with a neighbor, according to the report. Hummons then got up and began choking her and punching her in the face, the woman said.
Her mother told officers that she saw the attack over the video call, the report says. But the mother of Hummons’ child refused to sign a domestic battery complaint. Instead, an officer signed the complaint and took Hummons into custody.
He was released after a court hearing Monday and was ordered to stay away from the woman, records show.
It wasn’t the first time.
Hummons’ child’s mother previously filed for an order of protection on April 6, saying she had been arrested after Hummons falsely accused her of making a violent threat to take custody of their child. Court records indicate that criminal case was dropped.
In her petition for the protective order, the woman said Hummons was “mentally abusive” and “very controlling.” She noted she “had several physical altercations” and was once sent to the hospital with “a jaw injury.”
“I fear for my life because of his emotional rampages,” she wrote.
The order of protection was granted and Hummons was ordered to stay away from the woman. But within days, she moved to have the order vacated.
“Roderick and I have a 2 year old daughter and I wish to vacate the order of protection so we can parent our child together. I’ll also love to work this out without the court involvement,” she told a judge on April 10.
Court records show the order of protection was cleared on April 21.
Hummons was expected in court again on Aug. 11 in the battery case.
The security unit he worked on was created in 2020 to protect then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home and City Hall and oversee her personal detail. It began with just a handful of Chicago police officers, but by 2022 grew to include 65 officers, five sergeants and a lieutenant.
As of June, he was among 95 members working in Unit 544.