A video circulating online of a Chicago police officer wrestling with a man in the Loop has picked up a tidy narrative along with it: the man thought the officer was a security guard, swiped his phone, and found out the hard way he had picked the wrong target.
It’s a compelling story, but it’s not what happened, according to a CPD report documenting the man’s arrest, which came less than two weeks after he was arrested on the same block in an unrelated narcotics case.
Instead, the report says the confrontation began around 2 p.m. on May 4 when a 33-year-old man flagged down a Chicago police officer who was returning from traffic court in a marked squad car. The man told the officer that 36-year-old Brandon Mickens had just slapped him in the face and pointed Mickens out as the alleged attacker standing in the 300 block of South State Street, according to the arrest report…