Dyma Loving Sues Miami-Dade Cops Who Brutalized Her on Video

On March 5, a white man named Frank Tumm allegedly whipped out a shotgun and threatened to shoot the "burnt black-ass face" off of Dyma Loving, a 26-year-old South Dade resident who lived nearby. Loving, naturally, then tried to alert police. But in a video clip that later became national news, Miami-Dade cops were filmed violently tackling Loving to the ground, even though she'd clearly done nothing wrong.

Now, Loving's lawyers announced this morning that she's suing MDPD in federal court.

"Dyma’s lawsuit against these parties, both collectively and individually, addresses the complete and total breakdown of the officers’ inability to serve and protect her properly," her lawyers, Justin Moore, Kyara Herard, and Christina Roye said this morning in a media release. Loving is suing MDPD, the county, and officers Alejandro Giraldo and J.F. Calderon for a litany of claims, including false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligent hiring, negligent training and supervision, excessive force, battery, and deprivation of her civil rights.

Two different clips of the incident surfaced online early last month. Both videos showed an emotional Loving pleading with the cops for help. The officers responded by grabbing her wrists and tackling her. Body-camera footage showed Giraldo began the encounter by asking Loving and her friend, 22-year-old Adriana Green, if they had shouted insults at Tumm. Giraldo also apparently told Loving he was considering involuntarily committing her to a mental hospital.

"She needs to be corrected if anything," one of the cops said on film.

"Why do I have to be corrected when my life was just threatened?" Loving responded. A cop then jumped on her without warning.  

Loving was arrested that day and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The state eventually dropped the case. But astoundingly, Tumm was not arrested until March 14 — days after the footage surfaced online. He is now charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

After the videos went viral, MDPD Director Juan Perez stated on Twitter that he was upset by what he'd seen. He confirmed Giraldo was a field-training officer, which meant Giraldo had taught other cops how to react in situations like this. Perez confirmed that Giraldo had been taken off the street while the department investigated the incident.

Last month, Loving told New Times she felt the officers sparked the incident by treating her as the aggressor rather than a victim.

"Yes, I was yelling, but my adrenaline was pumping — I almost just lost my life," Loving says. "I never threatened anyone. I was just pleading to speak with my kids." She added that she doesn't "feel safe anymore. I cry every day. I have kids, and I wonder, Who will protect them if something would happen to them? I could never call the police again."

Now, in addition to suing, Loving is publicly asking State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle's office to file charges against the cops who brutalized her.

"It is important to note that while pursuing prosecution of Dyma’s civil claims against these state agencies and the officers who aggrieved her is important, this will not take the place of criminal prosecution by the State Attorney’s Office," Loving's lawyers said today. "Thusly, we renew our pleas for the State Attorney to fulfill the duty of seeking equal justice for all people in the Miami-Dade area without condition, and we further our pleas that these two officers’ positions at the police department be vacated immediately."

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