- Credibility:
BELMONT CRAGIN — Two Chicago Police officers involved in the incident where officers pulled a woman from her car, dragged her by the hair and knelt on her neck outside a Northwest Side mall on Sunday have been stripped of their police powers pending an investigation.
The change comes after the Civilian Office of Police Accountability recommended the officers in the investigation be reassigned to desk duty.
The violent attack, first reported by Block Club Chicago, was captured on cellphone video.
WARNING: Video contains violent encounter
Mia Wright, 25, and four other people were running errands at the Brickyard Mall, 2600 N. Narragansett Ave., Sunday afternoon when several police officers swarmed their car, guns drawn, and pulled Wright and a family friend out of the car.
The officers then threw Wright and her friend on the ground, pinning Wright by her neck — eerily reminiscent of the police confrontation that led to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, which has sparked massive protests across the country.
During the attack, a piece of glass from the shattered window got in Wright’s eye. Police called Wright a “f—— savage” and called the family “b——s,” according to the family.
Police arrested Wright and charged her with disorderly conduct, saying she “assembled with 3 or more persons for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace.” The mall had been looted Sunday.
But Wright and her family have said they have no idea what prompted the attack.
“I was in my car with my family … just driving,” Wright told reporters at a press conference Thursday morning, held in the Brickyard Mall parking lot where she was attacked. “I could’ve died … the way I was just tossed out the vehicle like an animal.”
Wright and her family have been calling for the officers to be investigated and for the disorderly conduct charge to be dropped.
“We all know that if this was a normal person, a non-police officer, that rushing up to a vehicle, smashing windows, dragging them by their hair, putting their knee on their neck — we all know that’s going to instigate criminal charges. It wouldn’t take 24 hours before you charge a felony,” the family’s attorney Nenye Uche said at Thursday’s press conference.
“We’re asking for an investigation by police because this was a highly unethical and vicious attack. And it’s shameful and disgraceful.”
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office is also conducting its own investigation into the police officers.
The office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon on the status of the investigation.
In a news release issued Thursday, COPA said they’re still working to identify all of the officers in the video. The police accountability agency said its investigation is in the early stages.
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