Several Chicago cops under investigation after they violently pulled two women from their car and pinned them on the ground while responding to 'looting' reports at a mall
Several Chicago police officers are under investigation after a video surfaced showing them yanking two women out of a car and throwing them to the ground, and one of the women alleges one of the officers put his knee on her neck while restraining her.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) has launched an investigation into the encounter Sunday at Brickyard Mall on the city's West Side in which police said in a statement that Mia Wright was charged with disorderly conduct.
During the encounter, Wright, 25, said 'they threw me to the ground, and he (the officer) proceeded to put his knee on my neck'.
The video shows officers on both sides of the car bashing the vehicle with their batons before pulling Wright and Tnika Tate from the vehicle and pinning them to the ground.
The police department has not commented about the use of force and the video does not clearly show any officer kneeling on Wright's neck.
Several Chicago police officers are under investigation after a video surfaced showing them yanking Mia Wright and Tnika Tate out of a car and throwing them to the ground outside of a mall
Wright's mother, Kim Woods, who watched from the backseat of the car, said: 'The first thing I could think about was (George) Floyd,' who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the handcuffed black man's neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air.
The department said Wright was charged after she was 'observed by responding officers assembled with 3 or more persons for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace'.
On Sunday, according to several media outlets, witnesses said police arrived at the mall where there had been reports of looting and spotted a car in which Wright, Tate and others were inside.
Wright said that she and her relatives had gone to the mall on Sunday because there had been looting at another mall they had wanted to go to.
But they quickly realized that the Target store they wanted to visit was closed. She said their vehicle was surrounded by police as they tried to leave the parking lot.
She told WLS-TV that she was trying to get out of the car when police pulled her out.
On Sunday, according to several media outlets, witnesses said police arrived at the mall where there had been reports of looting and spotted a car in which Wright (left), Tate (right) and others were inside
Wright said: 'I was trying to get my hands up, they continue to break the window (pictured), and before you know it I was being pulled out of the vehicle, pulled by my hair'
'I was trying to get my hands up, they continue to break the window, and before you know it I was being pulled out of the vehicle, pulled by my hair. ... The officer grabbed me.
'I had my hair in a bun (and) he grabbed me by the top of my bun and pulled me out of the vehicle. And that is when they threw me to the ground, and he proceeded to put his knee on my neck.'
In a statement, Ephraim Eddy, a spokesman for the civilian board that investigates officer-involved shootings and other incidents involving the use of force, said that the agency has started an investigation 'to determine if the actions of involved officers are withing Department policy'.
Over the weekend, police were scrambling across the city to restore order after protests over the death of Floyd in Minneapolis devolved into widespread vandalism, fires, and clashes with police.
The COPA and the department are also investigating a separate incident that was captured on video, which showed an officer chasing and then punching a protester after a demonstration that was held Monday night in the Uptown neighborhood on the city's North Side.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, an officer can be seen pushing a man to the ground and punching him in the head.
Neither the officer nor the protester have been identified, department spokesman Howard Ludwig, told the newspaper.
'We do not tolerate misconduct of any kind and if any wrongdoing is discovered, officers will be held accountable,' Ludwig said.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, a similar incident happened to college students, Taniyah Pilgrim (left, with her boyfriend and right) and Messiah Young. Atlanta police release bodycam footage from college student arrest
The video shows Pilgrim in the passenger seat screaming in terror as an officer aims a Taser at her and deploys it
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, a similar incident happened to college students, Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young.
Pilgrim was dragged from a car by Atlanta police when she and her boyfriend, Young, were caught in traffic caused by a protest over Floyd's death.
'I still can't even process what happened,' Pilgrim said at a news conference Monday. 'We felt like we were going to die in that car.'
Dramatic body-camera video released by police shows a group of officers shouting orders, smashing the driver's side window, deploying stun guns and pulling Pilgrim and Messiah Young from the sedan.
Throughout, the couple can be heard screaming and asking officers what is happening.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a news conference Sunday after reviewing body camera footage that she and police Chief Erika Shields decided to immediately fire two of the officers involved and place three others on desk duty pending an investigation.
'Use of excessive force is never acceptable,' Bottoms told reporters. Shields called the footage 'really shocking to watch'.
Police identified the fired officers as Investigator Ivory Streeter, who was hired in December 2003, and Investigator Mark Gardner, hired in August 1997.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a statement Monday that his office is in contact with Shields and is 'moving rapidly to reach an appropriate charging decision'.
Young, 22, of Chicago, is a rising senior at Morehouse, where he's studying business management.
The shocking footage showed officers smash the driver's side window and use a Taser on Young, a 22-year-old student attending Morehouse College
Pilgrim, 20 — from San Antonio, Texas — is a psychology major at Spelman College. Both schools are historically black colleges near downtown Atlanta.
Young suffered a fractured arm and required 20 stitches. He said the arrest was 'one of the hardest things that I've ever experienced in my life'.
The two were out getting something to eat Saturday night when they got snarled in traffic along Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, their lawyers said.
A friend of theirs, another Morehouse student, was standing in the street talking to them while they were stopped when police began to take him into custody, Young's lawyer Mawuli Davis said.
Young used his phone to film what was happening and that's when officers turned on him, Davis said, adding he believes the officers' motivation was to keep his client from capturing what was going on.
Police on Sunday released video from seven officers' body cameras. It shows the officers taking the other young man into custody as he pleads with them to let him go, saying he didn't do anything.
Young, behind the wheel of a car stopped in the street, is holding his phone up as an officer approaches and pulls his door open.
He then pulls it shut and says repeatedly, 'I'm not dying today'.
Young tells officers the other man is with them and urges them to release his friend and let him get in the car.
The car advances and gets stuck in traffic as officers run up to both sides, shouting orders. An officer uses a stun gun on Pilgrim as she's trying to get out, and officers pull her from the car.
Another officer yells at Young to put the car in park and open the window. An officer repeatedly hits the driver's side window with a baton, and another finally manages to break it. Officers also slashed the tires, the lawyers said.
As the window glass shatters, an officer uses a stun gun on Young and officers pull him from the car as officers shout, 'Get your hand out of your pockets,' and, 'He got a gun. He got a gun. He got a gun'.
Once he's out and on the ground, officers zip tie his hands behind his back and lead him away.
Police reports do not list a gun as having been recovered. Davis said Young has never been arrested and there was no gun or drugs in the car.
'There is no justification, none whatsoever, for what they did to them and for what the system did to them,' Davis said, later adding, 'If there was a gun, best believe this would have had a very different outcome.'
In incident reports, Streeter wrote that he used his 'electronic conductive weapon' on the driver and Gardner wrote that he deployed his Taser 'to bring the female passenger under control'
Bottoms said Pilgrim was released without charges. She said Young was released, too, and she's ordering charges against him dropped.
A police report says he was charged with attempting to elude police and driving with a suspended license.
Davis said criminal defense attorney Gary Spencer is working pro bono to make sure Young's charges are dropped and to get the arrest wiped from his record so it doesn't cause him problems later in life.
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney representing Pilgrim, said they intend to file a lawsuit, saying cities often don't make changes until they have to start writing checks.
'We want change in policies, in procedures, in laws,' Stewart said. 'It's not hard to fix.'
Training records from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which certifies law enforcement officers in Georgia, show that Streeter and Gardner recently completed training in use of force and in deescalation tactics.
Several Chicago cops under investigation after they violently pulled two women from their car and pinned them on the ground while responding to 'looting' reports at a mall
![Several Chicago cops under investigation after they violently pulled two women from their car and pinned them on the ground while responding to 'looting' reports at a mall]()
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