Body camera footage released Thursday shows officers reviving a man found unresponsive from a suspected heroin overdose in the bathroom of a Chicago-area courthouse, according to the Cook County sheriff's office.
Around 11 a.m. Wednesday, deputies at the courthouse in north suburban Skokie were notified that a man was having a "medical emergency" in one of the building's restrooms, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
Upon arriving in the bathroom, responding deputies found another sheriff's deputy and an Evanston police officer attempting to wake the man, who was lying unresponsive on the bathroom floor.
A syringe, suspected heroin and other items were found on the floor, the sheriff's office said — all of which were visible, along with scattered papers and what appeared to be a prescription pill container, in the body camera footage that was released.
Authorities said a Cook County sheriff's police commander in the building arrived at the scene with a naloxone nasal spray and administered it on the man, who can be seen in the video regaining consciousness a short time later.
The 24-year-old man was at the courthouse for possession of a controlled substance and theft cases, according to the sheriff's office. He was taken to an area hospital where he was treated and released, officials said.
He was charged with heroin possession Wednesday, according to the sheriff's office, and denied bond during a hearing the same day at the Skokie courthouse.
Wednesday's incident marked the second time deputies have successfully used naloxone, the life-saving opioid overdose antidote, since they began carrying the drug in June 2016, the sheriff's office said.
Authorities said an officer administered naloxone on a 28-year-old Rockford woman found unresponsive in a hotel room in unincorporated Elk Grove Township on April 23.
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In 2016, the Cook County Sheriff's office also began a program to distribute naloxone kits to detainees upon their release from custody, in an effort to prevent overdose deaths among those leaving the jail, officials said, giving out more than 1,700 kits.
