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Blunt-Eating Man Grabs Officer's Mace, Sprays Him in Face: Charges

 Adrian Ocampo, 31, was charged with resisting arrest and aggravated battery to police causing injury.
Adrian Ocampo, 31, was charged with resisting arrest and aggravated battery to police causing injury.
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DNAinfo; Chicago Police Department

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Logan Square man who was about to be pepper-sprayed by a police officer chasing him grabbed the bottle and sprayed it into the officer's face instead, prosecutors said.

Both the officer and the suspect Adrian Ocampo, 31, were hit by the blast, prosecutors said in court Monday.

Ocampo then began to punch the officer, but was soon restrained, cuffed and arrested. He's facing multiple charges — including for drug possession, the original reason why police were chasing him.

The Northwest Side chase happened just before 2 p.m. Sunday when police spotted Ocampo trying to roll a blunt, typically a hollowed out cigar filled with marijuana, Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said during his bond hearing Monday.

Ocampo had been sitting in the passenger seat of a 2003 Jeep, bent over, licking the blunt as he tried to roll it shut, according to an arrest report.

He also wasn't wearing a seatbelt as the Jeep cruised past police in the 5300 block of West Diversey Avenue, the report said.

When officers pulled over the Jeep, they saw Ocampo put the blunt "in his mouth as if he was going to eat it," Antonietti said. One of the officers asked Ocampo if he was eating a blunt, and Ocampo opened his mouth and said yes, according to police.

Police tried to arrest Ocampo, but he swung at — and missed — one of the officers and started to run away, the arrest report said.

The officer grabbed Ocampo by the shirt, but Ocampo wriggled out of it and chucked the shirt in the officer's face, Antonietti said.

Ocampo continued to run, but eventually stopped at a fence in the 5100 block of West Parker Avenue, according to prosecutors. There, the officer tried to detain Ocampo by using pepper spray, Antonietti said.

But that plan backfired when Ocampo grabbed the pepper spray and twisted it toward the officer, she added. Both men were sprayed in the face.

Ocampo started to punch the officer, but was eventually detained and handcuffed when back-up arrived, the arrest report said. Court records show that Ocampo had roughly 30 grams of marijuana in two bags in his shorts.

Ocampo, of the 2500 block of West Cortland Street, was charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer, aggravated battery to a peace officer causing injury, possession of marijuana and resisting arrest/obstruction.

Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. on Monday ordered Ocampo held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Ocampo's public defender said Ocampo works as a laborer and lives with his wife and four children.

According to prosecutors, Ocampo previously has been convicted of five felonies, including aggravated discharge of a firearm, robbery, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and two separate drug charges.

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