Black woman’s tooth was knocked out by a Chicago police officer. 1 day after her $280,000 settlement, she receives death threats

Chicago activist Miracle Boyd received a $280,000 settlement after she said a police officer struck her in the face during a 2020 protest. The Chicago City Council approved the payout on March 12, 2025, to resolve her complaint, according to Atlanta Black Star.

The social justice group GoodKids MadCity, where Boyd works, received a letter addressed to her the next day. The TRiiBE, which obtained a copy, reported that the first line said, “Miracle Boyd deserves to be knocked unconscious and be hanged from a tree,” and added that she “got what she deserved.”

According to CBS News, Boyd was 18 when she attended a 1,000-person protest at Grant Park. Demonstrators were trying to knock down a Christopher Columbus statue, the account stated. As tensions flared, Boyd began filming an officer making a violent arrest, the later account said. The officer saw Boyd, knocked her phone out of her hand, and then hit her in the face so hard that the blow knocked out one of her teeth, that account stated.

Unsigned letter arrived after city council approved the payout

Her lawsuit said former Chicago police officer Nicholas Jovanovich was “walking aggressively toward her” and called her a “piece of s–t.” The lawsuit also said he hit her in the face “without justification,” knocking out her tooth, and told her, “give me that f–king phone.”

Boyd also suffered nerve damage, according to her lawsuit. Police have said some people in the crowd attacked officers with fireworks, rocks, frozen bottles, and other objects.

The city’s civilian police accountability office found that the officer used excessive force and made false statements about the assault. It said he “grossly mischaracterized” what happened when he filed an incident report.

The office recommended that he be fired. The officer resigned in 2022 after that recommendation. Boyd filed a lawsuit in federal court last year against the officer who struck her and two other officers.

The letter to GoodKids MadCity had no sender name and no return address. A postmark indicated that the United States Postal Service received the mail on March 11 in Carol Stream, Illinois, The TRiiBE reported. Threatening letters to Black residents are not new, such as when a California woman received a note claiming her neighborhood belonged to Armenian and white people.

The letter also included slurs and profanities aimed at Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. It read, “F–k that n–r mayor Brandon Johnson! Hopefully [President Donald] Trump puts that piece of s–t in a cage just like the ape in the movie Trading Spaces,” an apparent reference to the 1983 Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places.

“The letter is talking about modern-day lynching, speaking of my partner when they don’t even know him, and essentially naming the mayor too,” Boyd told The TRiiBE. “So I feel like this has just become, like, a political game because now that they’ve mentioned the mayor, the mayor needs to make a statement on this, and so do all the people that voted in favor of this police misconduct settlement.”

GoodKids MadCity organizers said this was not the first threat the group has received. Executive Director Carlil Pittman said the group has received roughly 10 calls in the last year from “anonymous racist folks calling to voice their opinions.”

Pittman said the most recent phone call happened the day the city council voted on Boyd’s settlement. The Columbus statue in Grant Park was removed days after the 2020 protest on orders of then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot and remains in storage.

Boyd has said she did nothing to excuse the officer’s actions and noted that it is legal in Illinois to record public interactions with police. “I feel like it should not have ever happened. If you wanted me to put my phone away, I was not going to put it away, I was not going to put it away, so, I have the right to assembly. I have the right to press. You can’t deny me my rights, so that was that,” Boyd said.

Boyd said she will not let the vitriol affect her as she prepares to give birth to her first child in May. “I’m not letting it get to me because I’m strong and brave. I’m brave enough to know to make smart decisions, but it seems like my safety is on the line, and I’m about to bring a child into the world that people just are not going to accept,” Boyd said.

“I still have a whole community of folks who will support me, my first child, and everything else that comes with it,” she added. Boyd’s experience reflects a broader pattern of racial tension in Chicago, as when a CBS Chicago crew was attacked while preparing for a live shot, witnesses said it was racially motivated.