Cowboy gallops onto Dan Ryan
Dan Ryan #DanRyan
A man on a horse was snarling traffic on the Dan Ryan on the South Side Monday.
The horseman, wearing a shirt with a Batman logo, trotted onto the local lanes about 4:20 p.m. near 63rd Street, Illinois State Police said.
Video posted by ABC7 shows the horse galloping on the highway, surrounded by motorcycles. Later, a Chicago Police squad car can be seen driving slowly along side of the horse.
A man is riding a horse on the local lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway. WATCH LIVE: https://abc7.ws/3hMI5sp
Posted by ABC 7 Chicago on Monday, September 21, 2020
Later, the horse can be seen galloping up an exit ramp. As he comes off the expressway, several police cars could be seen waiting for him.
The man and his horse got off the expressway at 95th Street, state police said.
After the man dismounted, he can be seen talking to officers. He is later handcuffed and state troopers can be seen attempting to put him in a squad car. Multiple onlookers can be seen recording the incident as the officers struggle to put him in a car.
The horse was taken in by Chicago police about 5:20 p.m., according to News Affairs officer Anthony Spicuzza. It will be taken to Animal Care and Control, Spicuzza said.
Illinois state police would not immediately confirm if the man was taken into custody.
“He shouldn’t have been on a horse on the expressway,” a spokesperson for the state police said.
ABC7 identified the man as Chicago’s well-known Dread Head Cowboy, who has been seen at multiple civil rights protests around the city in recent months.
In videos posted to his Facebook page, the cowboy, whose real name is Adam Hollingsworth, could be seen bouncing atop his horse with a line of cars following closely behind.
“I shut down the Dan Ryan, kids lives matter,” he can be heard saying.
In another video, Hollingsworth appears to be sitting in the back seat of a vehicle with his hands behind his back. A third video appears to show him handcuffed to a bench in a room at an unknown location.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.