Newly released police bodycam video shows cops physically removing a former Illinois police chief from his vehicle after he was accused of drunk driving.
Walter Klimek, who was chief of the Bridgeview Police Department from 2013 until 2016, was involved in a car accident on Dec. 27, 2024.
‘You guys are my f**king buddies.’
Officers with the nearby Justice Police Department responded to a high-speed car crash in which Klimek’s speeding automobile allegedly struck a guard rail, spun out, and then slammed into another vehicle, WGN-TV reported.
The police bodycam video — featuring explicit language — shows Klimek in the driver’s seat of his car with the airbags deployed and police officers all around his vehicle.
It appears that Klimek doesn’t realize his vehicle was involved in a car crash and is insisting on leaving the crime scene. The officer is heard on police bodycam video informing the former police chief that his vehicle was involved in a car crash and suffered damage.
Klimek shouts at officers: “Let me go this way!” He then attempts to befriend the officers, “C’mon guys, you guys are f**king awesome! That’s f**king cool!”
The Chicago-area villages of Justice and Bridgeview are next to each other, and a Justice officer — who apparently knows who the former Bridgeview police chief is — asks, “How much have you had to drink tonight, Wally?”
A passenger in the other car that Klimek reportedly struck was injured and was transported to a local hospital.
When an ambulance arrives at the scene, Klimek is heard asking officers, “What the f**k is that thing over there now?”
After the officer explained that it was an ambulance to tend to the injured motorist, Klimek is heard yelling: “F**k him! Get the f**k out of here!”
Klimek refuses to obey officers’ commands to exit his vehicle and defiantly grasps the steering wheel when officers attempt to remove him from the car.
An officer tells Klimek, “All right, Wally, we’re going to have to get out, man.”
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” a cop tells Klimek in the bodycam video released this week. “Let’s be a grown adult now.”
The former police chief tells the officers, “You guys are my f**king buddies” and that he’s “sorry.”
Finally, two officers physically removed Klimek from his vehicle.
Klimek screams in the bodycam video, “Leave me alone!”
After being dragged out of the vehicle, Klimek is still uncooperative and is placed on a stretcher and strapped down.
Even after he was booked, Klimek reportedly was confused over the incident and didn’t realize that he was involved in a car accident or that he had been arrested and charged with driving under the influence, the video shows.
“What do you mean a DUI?” Klimek told police, according to the New York Post. “I’m not drunk.”
Klimek refused to have his blood drawn at a local hospital to determine his blood-alcohol content, according to the arrest report.
The former police chief was charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest and DUI.
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Bodycam video, Police bodycam footage, Police bodycam video, Dui, Driving under the influence, Viral video, Viral videos, Drunk driving, Car crash, Car accident, Crime, Illinois
