POLICE
New Bodycam Images Show CPD Attack on Miracle Boyd
Bodycam footage apparently shows officer Jovanovich reaching for Miracle Boyd’s cell phone.
BODYCAM IMAGE OBTAINED FROM COPA.
Officer Nicholas Jovanovich now faces firing as a result of the 2020 incident, in which he knocked out the activist’s tooth and seized her cell phone.
BY JIM DALEY Content warning: Police violence
P
olice reports and bodycam images obtained by the Weekly and the Chicago Reader shed new light on a 2020 incident in which a Chicago police officer attacked activist Miracle Boyd at a Grant Park protest, knocking out her front tooth. The images, which were attached to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s (COPA) investigation of the incident, are stark. As another cop looks on, officer Nicholas Jovanovich, facing the camera, runs toward Boyd and swings his fist at her as she backs away. When the blow lands, her cell phone flies to the pavement and she stumbles away, bent double. Jovanovich has been with the
department since September 2005. Last May, COPA concluded its investigation of the incident and recommended he be fired for excessive force and other violations. Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown objected, suggesting he be suspended for a year instead. On March 17, the Sun-Times reported that Chicago Police Board member Nanette Doorley reviewed COPA’s investigation and agreed with the agency’s recommendation over Brown’s objection. The board will hold an evidentiary hearing to decide Jovanovich’s fate. Last spring, after COPA denied Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for police bodycam footage and other materials related to the agency’s investigation of the attack, the Weekly
sued to get them. In December, COPA relented, releasing a heavily redacted video and nearly 100 still frames from bodycams to the Weekly. Until now, some of the only publicly available footage of the attack was a cellphone video filmed across the street and tweeted by youth activist group GoodKids MadCity, which Boyd is a member of. While the video COPA provided is almost entirely redacted, multiple still frames clearly show Jovanovich approaching Boyd, extending his arm, and striking her. An object that appears to be her cell phone is knocked to the ground. As Boyd turns away, Jovanovich appears to immediately pick up the phone. In addition to finding he used excessive force, COPA determined Jovanovich “seized [Boyd’s] phone
without justification” and failed to inventory it. COPA also found Jovanovich made “false, misleading, inaccurate, and/or incomplete statements” in the tacticalresponse report (TRR) he submitted about the incident. CPD officers must file a TRR whenever they use force against a civilian. Last week, the Reader obtained twenty-two TRRs Jovanovich filed over the course of his career, including the one about the 2020 incident. According to the Invisible Institute’s Citizens Police Data Project, that’s more use-of-force reports than ninety-six percent of Chicago cops. Eighteen of the people Jovanovich reported using force against were Black, and four were Latinx; four, including Boyd, were women; two, including APRIL 7, 2022 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 11
