Dashcam video shows Chicago cop smiling while attacking reverend with kids in her car

A Chicago woman is suing local police over a 2013 incident in which two officers threatened her with their guns and pepper-sprayed her while her children were in the car, WBBM-TV reported.

Rev. Catherine Brown said the two officers, Jose López and Michelle Morsi-Murphy, "beat me down to my underwear, pulled my skirt off me. They beat me with the sticks and hit me with their boots in my head."

According to Brown, the encounter on May 13, 2013 began when she honked her horn to avert a collision with the officers' squad car, which was speeding toward her in the alley leading to Brown's home.

Dashcam video shows Morsi-Murphy leaving her vehicle. Brown said Morsi told her, "B*tch, move that f*cking car back" while López pointed his gun at her head. Brown then called police dispatchers to ask for a supervisor. Audio of the call captures her childrens' screams.

"[I thought] they might shoot us and kill us," said Brown's daughter Georgia, who was 8 years old at the time.

When the officers tried to drag her out of her car, Brown said, she backed out of the alley to try and call witnesses for help. As WMAQ-TV reported at the time, police claimed that Brown's vehicle slammed into their patrol car and that it subsequently dragged Morsi-Murphy for about a half block, forcing her to be hospitalized.

In fact, the dashcam footage shows not only that Brown did not drag the female officer, but that it was the patrol car that caused the collision after tailing her out of the alley. It also shows López smiling after his partner hit both Brown and one of her children with pepper-spray.

Brown was initially charged with attempted murder, but was later convicted of reckless conduct for backing out of the alley. She has filed an appeal on that sentence, while also suing the officers. Records show that López has been the subject of 21 citizen complaints, while Morsi-Murphy has had 19 complaints filed against her.

"I got treated like an animal," Brown said.

Authorities have not commented on the matter, citing the litigation.

Watch WBBM's report, as aired on Thursday, below.

[h/t The Free Thought Project]