Video After The Jump
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago’s police oversight agency is investigating a white officer’s struggle with a Black woman who was walking her dog in a lakefront park, an encounter the woman’s attorneys allege became violent & was “an obvious case of racial profiling.”
Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability opened its investigation Sunday of the officer’s interaction with the woman.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she was “deeply concerned” by video of the incident that has been widely shared on social media & Chicago’s police superintendent asked the public for patience as the incident is investigated.
A law office representing Nikkita Brown said in a statement that she was near the lakefront with her dog about 12:10 a.m. Saturday when a Chicago police officer approached her for being in the area after the park was closed.
In the two-minute-long video recorded by a bystander, Brown & her dog appear to be walking away from the officer as he follows closely & at one point Brown turns around with her phone in her hand & stops.
Moments later, the officer appears to reach for Brown’s phone & then grabs Brown, who can be heard yelling, “Let go!” as she struggles to break free.
Brown’s attorneys accused the officer of “violently” attacking their client “for absolutely no reason.”
“He attempts to tackle her, all while groping her body as she screams for help,” the attorneys say. “This unprovoked attack lasts for approximately two minutes, during this time Ms. Brown’s phone is knocked from her hands and she is knocked out of her shoes.”
When Brown is finally free, she can be seen on video picking up her phone off the ground before walking away with her dog. Brown’s attorneys said she returned home, called 911 and filed a report with a sergeant, though the attorneys said she hasn’t received a copy of that report.
They allege the encounter was racially motivated, noting there were several other individuals in the park that night, including a group of about four white people walking some distance behind Brown.
“This was an obvious case of racial profiling,” the attorneys said in their statement, which said that Brown is suffering “emotional trauma” from the “brutal, unprovoked & unlawful attack.”
The Chicago Police Department said it was aware of the video & referred the matter to COPA, which opened an investigation shortly after being notified of the incident.
Ephraim Eaddy, a spokesperson for the COPA, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the agency has been in contact with Brown’s attorney.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Monday morning that the officer seen in the video had not yet been interviewed by COPA investigators.
“Apparently there was a closure of that area of the beach & then that precipitated the interaction. We don’t yet know what was done or said. All we know is this person was not arrested & yet the officer had, obviously you see the interaction on the video,” he said at a news conference.
Brown asked the public for patience as the incident is investigated and to “allow COPA to do its job and get to the bottom of what happened.”
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