Black teenage girl sues white police officer for brutal assault in car park

The off-duty police officer stopped Monique Tillman on her bike, choked her and grabbed her hair

A black teenage girl is suing a white police officer for assaulting her in a car park.

17-year-old Monique Tillman, then 15, was cycling through the car park of Tacoma Mall, Washington, with her brother Eric Branch, when they were stopped by an off-duty officer who was also a mall security guard.

He is seen on CCTV footage getting out his car and taking notes.

When Ms Tillman starts to cycle away, he grabs her off her bike.

“I tried to ride away, he grabbed me, threw me against someone's car, started choking me, grabbed me by my hair, and tried to slam my face into the concrete,” said Ms Tillman to King 5 News.

According to a court document filed by Ms Tillman’s lawyer, the off-duty officer stopped the siblings as they were “trespassing” in the car park, “causing a disturbance” and were carrying out “disruptive behaviour”.

Her older brother was kept back by another security officer while Ms Tillman was being tased.

“There’s no crime, we’re not doing anything, we’re just riding our bikes, really, through the mall to take a shortcut home,” said Mr Branch.

“That was not police-like,” he added. “They’re supposed to serve and protect us.”

Ms Tillman was arrested in the car park but the charges were later dropped.

Two years later Ms Tillman has decided to sue as she said they were doing “nothing wrong” and that the officer “just started harassing us”.

“I think it was more racially motivated because I feel like if we were two white kids, they wouldn’t have stopped us. They wouldn’t have said anything to us,” said Ms Tillman.

Ms Tillman is suing the off-duty officer, the Simon Property Group, the company that owns the mall, and Universal Protection Services for damages.

None of the defendants commented to the US news channel due to pending legislation.