LINCOLN PARK — Lawyers for a Black woman who was followed and grabbed by a Chicago Police officer while walking her dog along the lakefront last month have released audio from her 911 call reporting the incident.
Nikkita Brown was walking her dog near North Avenue Beach just after midnight Aug. 28 when the officer walked up to her and told her the beach was closed, according to Brown’s attorney, Keenan Saulter.
In two viral videos of the altercation, the police officer can be seen trying to grab Brown’s phone from her hands and grabbing her arms as she screams for him to “let go” and tries to get away. The cop wraps his arms around Brown and holds her.
Brown’s small dog gets yanked around during the encounter and her phone gets knocked out of her hands. The officer eventually lets Brown go and she picks up her belongings before walking away while he watches.
LISTEN TO THE 911 CALL HERE:
On Thursday, Saulter’s office released audio from Brown’s 911 call after the incident in which she asks for help and to speak with a Chicago Police sergeant. The lawyers also said they still haven’t received the name of the officer, a copy of the police report or the cop’s body camera footage.
“I need to report an incident with a cop,” Brown says in the call. “Can you please send a sergeant?”
When the dispatcher asks for more details about the incident, Brown says she was “harassed” by a Chicago cop.
“I was profiled. I was threatened,” she says.
The dispatcher asks if the cop drew a weapon, which Brown says he didn’t, adding that “he tried to drop me on several occasions.”
“I asked for my space. He did not have on a mask,” Brown tells the dispatcher.
The call ends with Brown in tears as the dispatcher tells her she can report the incident to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and that a sergeant is on the way.
Brown reported the incident to COPA, which opened an investigation, and the officer, whose identity has not yet been publicly confirmed, was put on administrative leave last month, according to a police spokesperson.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said last month she was “disturbed by what I saw.”
“It looked like the woman was following the direction of the officer and leaving the beach. … This is a pretty straightforward matter. It’s concerning what we saw in the video,” Lightfoot said.
Saulter, who is also representing Anjanette Young, the woman whose home police wrongfully raided, said the incident was “an obvious case of racial profiling.”
There were other people walking in the park when the officer chose to stop Brown, including a group of four white people she saw behind her, according to Saulter’s office. Witnesses who were in the area recorded video of the confrontation.
“Ms. Brown is suffering from the emotional trauma as a result of this brutal, unprovoked and unlawful attack by this Chicago Police Department officer,” Saulter said.
View the call log here:
:49 (Dispatcher) What is the emergency?
:54 (Brown) I need to report an incident with a cop.
:55 (Dispatcher) What type of incident?
:57 (Brown) Can you please send a sergeant?
1:06 (Brown) I was harassed by a Chicago PD, okay? Without warrant. I was profiled. I was threatened.
1:22 (Dispatcher) Did they brandish any weapons?
1:23 (Brown) He did not draw a weapon.
1:24 (Dispatcher) Did they physically hit you?
1:25 (Brown) He tried to drop me on several occasions. I asked for my space. He did not have on a mask.
2:33 (Dispatcher) What prompted the stop?
2:34 (Brown) I wasn’t leaving the lakefront quick enough, I guess.
2:41 (Dispatcher) Okay, we’re going to get a sergeant over there, okay?
2:44 (Brown starts crying)
3:20 (Dispatcher) You also have the option to report this to IPRA and COPA as well
3:24 I’m sorry, (Brown says crying) I’m sorry.
3:26 (Dispatcher) It’s okay
3:27 (More crying)
3:28 (Dispatcher) Take a deep breath, take a deep breath
3:36 (Dispatcher) I’m going to send a sergeant over there
Jake Wittich is a Report for America corps member covering Lakeview, Lincoln Park and LGBTQ communities across the city for Block Club Chicago.
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