CHICAGO (AP) — Charges of official misconduct and aggravated battery have been filed against a white former Chicago police officer captured on video struggling with a Black woman who was walking her dog in a park.
Officer Bruce Dyker has been charged with official misconduct and aggravated battery in a public way, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said. He’s due in court for arraignment on Thursday.
Dyker, 52, who had been on desk duty since shortly after the incident last summer, resigned from the Chicago Police Department in May before any formal disciplinary action was announced against him, a department spokesperson said last week. He had been a Chicago officer since 1998.
Videos showing Dyker grabbing Nikkita Brown shortly after midnight on Aug. 28, 2021, as she walked her French bulldog at North Avenue Beach later went viral.
In one video recorded by a bystander, Brown and her dog appear to be walking away from the officer as he follows closely.
Brown repeatedly tells Dyker not to come closer and to back up because he isn’t wearing a face mask. But he continues to approach and order her to leave the area because it was closed.
Moments later, the officer appears to reach for Brown’s phone and then grabs her as she can be heard yelling, “Let go!” and struggles to break free.
The incident sparked a Civilian Office of Police Accountability investigation, while Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was “quite disturbed” by the videos.
Attorneys for the woman alleged the encounter became violent and was an “obvious case of racial profiling.”
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