New police body camera footage provides new details surrounding a video of a young woman being manhandled by Chicago police officer while she was out walking her dog last month. The new images however, now cast doubt on what occurred that late night.
The footage, was released by Nikkita Brown’s lawyer Keenan J. Saulter. Brown is the woman in the nearly five-minute video where the officer repeatedly asks her to leave the park before getting into an altercation.
In the clip, viewers can see the officer, who is white and whose identity has not been made public, exiting his squad car at North Avenue Beach and walking toward Brown and her dog a little after midnight on Aug. 30. The cop tells her that the area is closed.
The audio starts as the officer steps outside of his vehicle.
Brown is heard asking the officer to “respect my space.” The officer fires back, “Respect your space? I’m about to put handcuffs on you.” “You don’t have a mask on,” Brown replies as she backpedals away from the officer.
He then tells her he doesn’t need a mask because he’s outside and to “know the ordinances” still while walking toward Brown, who continues to backpedal.
“Get out of the park! What do you not understand about that!” The officer shouts as Brown continues to ask him to back up. He continued, “The park is closed! You are trespassing on city property and you will go to jail if you do not take your dog and leave!”
At one point Brown stops to use her cellphone. The officer, who reportedly has a history of excessive force, is then seen reaching for the cellphone and grabbing Brown’s wrist and arm in the process. A tussle ensues and the camera appears to fall off and the video goes dark; minimal sound can be heard in the background.
Brown screams, “Let go! I’m leaving,” as the officer threatens to arrest her. “You don’t understand your situation,” he said. “When I’m telling you to exit the park, you don’t wait until police are about to arrest you and then you decide to comply.”
The struggle ultimately ends after the officer releases Brown.
The woman was not arrested, but she told ABC News earlier this month she was shaken up by the incident. “I thought he was going to kill me,” the woman told reporters. “I had it in my mind that I was going to be shot.”
When Brown’s video first surfaced on the internet the lack of sound failed to clarify exactly what took place. However, the latest update appeared to divide viewers on YouTube.
Some critics maintained the force was unwarranted, including one YouTube user who wrote, “All that bravado, for a dog walker. But when it comes to murderers, ‘no one is in custody.’”
However, another felt Brown was also at fault.
“This clearly shows a person not complying with laws of society and escalating the situation and then using the race card to defend her actions,” wrote another person.
“The police officer should sue her for slander along with media bias which has ruined his reputation.”
The officer involved has since been placed on desk duty while the investigation is ongoing.
