Sandy MaloneChicago, IL – The Chicago police officers who tased a 16-year-old student in a now-viral video on Jan. 29 have been reassigned, and the female student who attacked them had her felony charges dropped after viral outrage over the video(video below).
The incident began when Dnigma Howard got caught using her cell phone in class at John Marshall Metropolitan High School and was reprimanded by her teacher.
The 16 year old with a history of behavioral problems got into a confrontation with an assistant principal and began flipping desks, according to ABC News.
That’s when she was asked to leave the school, according to her father, Laurentio Howard.
School resource officers were called to escort Dnigma to the in-school suspension room while she waited for her father to pick her up, but she proved uncooperative.
“I tried to walk the other way. He put his hand out in front of me and like pushed me toward the stairway which I reacted to grab his vest,” the teenage girl told ABC News.
But police argued that’s not what happened at all, and said the student became physically aggressive and bit one of the officers.
She refused to release her bite until she and the officer both fell down a flight of stairs, according to WFLD.
At the bottom of the stairs, Dnigma continued fighting the officers.
The video, filmed by another student and posted to social media, showed the fight on the hallway floor, with one officer down on the ground and another standing up above Dnigma.
The video showed one officer standing with one foot on the girl’s leg, pointing a Taser in her direction.
In the video, the teenager tries to grab the yellow Taser out of the officer’s hand, but he stopped her and grabbed for her.
She continued to resist arrest while the officers tried to handcuff her.
Both officers deployed their Tasers on Dnigma, but only one can be seen in the video, ABC News reported.
Her father said he blames the school for not following an agreed-on protocol for his daughter’s behavior problems.
Laurentio Howard told ABC News that his daughter, who has a history of acting out in class, was supposed to be allowed to talk to a school counselor before she was thrown out of school.
His daughter’s version of events neglected to include the fact she had bitten a police officer on the staircase.
Dnigma was arrested after the incident. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and treated for minor injuries, ABC News reported.
She appeared in juvenile court on Feb. 3 and was charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer and two misdemeanor counts of resisting and obstructing a peace officer, according to WLS.
“I was like, dang, I got charged with protecting myself,” Dnigma told reporters. “It was just my word against the court’s word.”
Dnigma was put on house arrest with an electronic monitoring device, but charges we all suddenly dropped after the video of the incident went viral.
The prosecutor offered no explanation for dropping charges despite evidence of Dnigma’s crimes being on video.
Both officers were transported to University of Illinois Hospital and treated after the altercation for what the Fraternal Order of Police said are serious injuries.
“The officers are currently on medical leave and they will be reassigned to different duties within the District as COPA and the CPD Force Review Unit complete independent investigations into the incident,” Chicago Police Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told ABC News in a statement.
The officers will not be returning to the same campus, the school district said.
You can see video from the incident below: