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A Chicago police officer has resigned after several videos caught him manhandling a Black woman walking her dog last year.
Officer Bruce Dyker left the Chicago Police Department in May after 23 years on the force, according to a police spokesperson, per CBS News. The white cop came under fire after footage shows him getting physical with Nikkita Brown while she was walking her dog in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in August 2021.
It was just after midnight when Dyker confronted Brown about being on the beach past its closing time. Even though she complied with the officer and left the beach, Dyker allegedly drove behind Brown on her way out, she told Good Morning America in September 2021.
That's when Dyker gets out of his patrol car and tells Brown, "You can go to jail," as she's recording the incident on her cellphone. She's also heard asking the unmasked officer to stay back six feet since it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Please, respect my space. It’s COVID. Six feet. You do not have a mask on," Brown asks the officer.
Keenan Saulter, Brown's attorney, shared more footage of the shocking incident. It shows Dyker smacking Brown's phone out of her hands before throwing the Black woman around on the beach. Her small dog was getting yanked around by its leash during the attack, according to reporters. Several onlookers can be heard yelling at the cop to stop assaulting Brown.
Authorities defended Dyker's actions, saying he was trying to take Brown into custody after she violated several municipal codes, including having a dog on the beach and trespassing. Sources say Brown swore at the officer before she started recording.
"He knocks the phone out of her hand. He literally grabs her - and in such a way that he knocked her out of her shoes and her, you know - God bless her little dog for trying to protect her," Saulter said last August. "Even if she did use terse language with that officer, prior to anything we see on video, per the Chicago Police Department general orders, there is absolutely no cause - even if someone calls you a name or says a curse word to you - for you to grope or manhandle a woman, by herself."
Reporters learned Dyker had at least 24 misconduct allegations, three of which were sustained and resulted in discipline.
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