On March 5th, Dyma Loving, 26, a Miami area resident, and her friend Adrianna Green were walking past Frank Tumm’s home on Southwest 201st Street when Tumm, 50, called Green a “whore.” Both women were startled, and a verbal altercation erupted, and Green picked up a potted plant and threw it at Tumm.
According to Loving, Tumm then brandished a gun and pointed it at them. It was then that Loving saw her life flash in front of her eyes.
“He pulled the gun out on me and told me that he would blow my burned Black ass face off my f–king neck. Excuse my French, but those were his exact words,” Loving told ESSENCE in an exclusive interview. Loving said after Tumm pulled the gun on her, she started to throw more plants at him, and once he lowered the gun, her friend grabbed her arm, and they both ran away.
After Loving and Green made their way from Tumm, Green called the police. But instead of being treated as a victim, Loving’s encounter became a too-often-heard story of when Black people are met with policing gone wrong.
“At first, there were two cop cars that met us there [area where the incident happened]. We gave them the statement and everything, and they understood what happened. They were fine. They got our statement. And then they went down to Frank’s house to investigate him and get his side,” Loving said.
Things went awry when the third cop car showed up with Officer Alejandro Giraldo.
A black woman Called Miami-Dade Police For Help After A Man Brandished A Weapon and threaten her life. Yet, She Was Arrested for being distraught pic.twitter.com/xQ2vvDZZsW
— Brother Tyrone X (@tyrone345345) March 13, 2019
“It was Officer Giraldo that did everything to me. I asked him if he could walk me down to Adrienne’s house so that I can put my phone on the charger so I could call my kids. And the first thing he tells me was ‘no,’ I was just going to stand there and wait. I mean, at first, I took offense to it. But I didn’t say anything or react,” Loving said.
“I just waited. I gave him my statement. And the whole time I’m giving him my statement, he’s acting really ignorant towards me and Adrienne. He asked us, ‘Well why did you guys do this?’ And we were like, ‘What do you mean? We didn’t do anything. We didn’t even start this. We were just minding our own business,’” she continued.
Loving admitted that after being questioned as if she was a suspect, she became angry and began to yell, especially since they wouldn’t let her contact her children. As Loving is trying to explain herself to Giraldo, he grabs her by the arm and appears to push her against a fence.
“Do not touch me,” Loving shouted. Another police officer identified only as Officer Calderon grabs Loving by her other arm. “Record this,” Loving yelled to Green while telling officers not to touch her.
“I wanted to call my kid,” Loving said. “I just said I wanted to call my kid. My phone is dead. What do you not understand? I had a gun pointed in front of me and my kid is sick. I’m stressed out. I need to go call my children. I don’t understand.”
Loving said she noticed the first officers, who were women, looked in her direction, and she tried to get them to help. “I’m asking the other female officers to come to help me. And that’s when Adrienne put her phone on record. And in the video, you hear him [Giraldo] tell me I needed to be Baker Acted,” Loving said.
Although the incident happened on March 5th, the video didn’t catch the media’s attention until earlier this week, as it made its rounds on Facebook and then Twitter. On Thursday, according to Juan Perez, Director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, Giraldo was relieved from his duties as the investigation was underway. Tumm was also arrested on Thursday, weeks after the incident. But Loving, who was arrested for disorderly conduct the same day, is calling for justice to be served immediately, and for both men to get more than just get a slap on the wrist. She also stated that she’s suffering from physical and emotional pain.
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