A Black woman says she felt targeted because of her race by a police officer who attempted to tackle her as she was walking her dog in a Chicago park.
In an interview with Good Morning America on Thursday, Nikkita Brown described how a white cop drove up next to her while she was walking in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Aug. 28 and told her that she needed to leave.
Brown said she then began heading for the exit, but the officer continued to harass her, trailing behind her as she left the park. Meanwhile, she said she noticed that white people in the park hadn’t been confronted by police and asked to leave.
“I walked past four kids that were behind me… white males. As soon as I saw the car pull up, I looked behind me to see if he said anything to the kids. He didn’t,” Brown said.
At one point, the officer got out of his car and threatened Brown that she could “go to jail,” according to a recording of the incident she captured on her cell phone.
“I thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to kill me. I had it in my mind that I was going to be shot,” Brown said.
She left her phone out so she could call for help or let someone know she was “in jail or worse.”
Brown said that she asked the officer to keep some distance when he approached her because he was not wearing a mask. In a recording, the cop can be heard claiming he doesn’t need a mask because he’s outside. Soon after, the altercation turned physical, with the cop attempting to grab Brown’s legs and take her phone away as she screamed out, according to the clip.
“I knew if he got me on the floor, I would be dead,” Brown said.
The officer has not been named, but records reportedly show that more than two dozen complaints have been filed against him. He has been placed on paid administrative leave since the incident, but Brown wants his identity to be released and for him to be removed from active duty. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) is currently investigating the incident.
“It’s extremely difficult with someone who’s supposed to protect you, attacks you, and it was just completely unprovoked,” Brown’s attorney, Keenan Saulter, told ABC News.