Pregnant bystander: Officer punched me in stomach, called me "black bitch"

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Nicola Robinson

    
An eight months pregnant Chicago woman says an unidentified city police officer punched her in the stomach after she laughed at him for letting a suspect get away.

Nicola Robinson said she was standing outside with neighbors on Friday evening when three officers ran past in pursuit of a suspected drug dealer. After the officers failed to catch the suspect, the group laughed at the officers, the woman says.

That's when Robinson says a plainclothes officer approached and then shoved her while she was holding her 1-year-old son and then punched her in the right side of her stomach.

"As I got ready to walk in my building, he punched me on my right side as hard as he [could,] Robinson said. "After he punched me, he [said,] 'You black bitch, you better be glad I didn't hit you hard enough to make you lose your fucking baby.' "

Robinson's sister claims she witnessed the attack and the racist outburst, which she said shocked the other officers.

"The other two officers who [were] with him were standing there, and they're looking like, 'What are you doing?' But I guess they didn't want to say anything," Monique Dickerson said.

Robinson said the officer changed his demeanor when she pointed out that nearby apartment buildings are equip with surveillance cameras.

"Then that's when the attitude about him started changing, and he got real quiet," Robinson said. "You could tell in his face that he knew that, 'Man I have messed up.' "

Robinson said a building manager told her surveillance video clearly shows the officer punch her but the management company did not respond to media requests for comment.

Hospital records shows that Robinson spent five hours under observation before doctors cleared her to return home.

Chicago police have launched an internal affairs investigation into the incident, calling the allegations "very disturbing."

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