Girl, 15, punches man in front of police, is stunned twice by officer

A police report said the man was not defending himself when attacked by the juvenile.

STAFF REPORT

NILES — A 15-year-old Niles girl accused of punching an adult male was subdued by a police officer using a Taser.

Police Capt. Charles Wilson said he prepared charges and delivered them Tuesday to the juvenile court prosecutor.

The charges are delinquency by way of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assault.

It will be up to the prosecutor, Wilson said, to determine whether the charges will be filed.

Police Chief Bruce Simeone said he reviewed the videotape from Patrol Officer Todd Mobley’s cruiser.

“The girls were totally out of control,” Simeone said in defending the actions of Mobley, who fired two Taser barbs into the juvenile. “He followed our policy to avoid injury to others and himself.”

According to the police report, Mobley was called to a fight on Robbins Avenue, across the street from the Pit-N-Git tavern. At Wood Street and Robbins, the officer saw a silver-colored sport-utility vehicle — and the right side of the vehicle being kicked by a female. She walked away as the cruiser pulled up.

Mobley reported that four men got out of the SUV and he was talking with them when the 15-year-old ran up to one of the men, 24-year-old Matthew Petrilla of Niles, and began to punch him in the face.

“She did this all in front of the police,” Simeone said.

“The male [Petrilla] was not defending himself and was likely to be injured from the assault,” Mobley wrote in his report.

In order to prevent further injury and to control the girl, Mobley fired a Taser cartridge into her lower back. She fell to the ground and was ordered to stay down but she attempted to get up. Mobley reported firing another cartridge, and then she complied.

The girl could not be reached to comment.

The report said that two other females were being disorderly and Mobley ordered them to the ground. One of them asked abruptly to be arrested. She was handcuffed but not charged.

The female who was handcuffed had a bloody nose. She told Mobley, the report said, that she was struck in the face earlier by Petrilla, and that’s why the 15-year-old attacked him.