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 and 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.
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 and her dog appear to be walking away from the officer as he follows closely, and at one point Brown turns around with her phone in her hand and stops.
Moments later, the officer appears to reach for Brown’s phone and 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 in the statement. “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 and unlawful attack.”
The Chicago Police Department said it was aware of the video and 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.
The Associated Press
