NYPD cop suspended for caught-on-camera chokehold in Queens
By Tamar Lapin
New York Post
June 21, 2020
An NYPD officer was suspended on Sunday just hours after he was caught on cellphone footage appearing to put a suspect in an illegal chokehold during an arrest in Queens.
The cop was one of four involved in the arrest of a black man Sunday morning on the Rockaway boardwalk, according to video of the incident circulating on social media.
The encounter took place days after the New York City Council made it a criminal offense for cops to use chokeholds.
“After a swift investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau, a police officer involved in a disturbing apparent chokehold incident in Queens has been suspended without pay,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement Sunday evening.
“While a full investigation is still underway, there is no question in my mind that this immediate action is necessary,” Shea added.
“We are committed to transparency as this process continues.”
Shea did not name the suspended officer in his statement. But the cop was identified from his shield number as David Afanador, using CAPstat, a database of federal lawsuits against NYPD officers maintained by the Legal Aid Society.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter Sunday night that “Today was the fastest I have EVER seen the NYPD act to discipline an officer.”
“Within hours: Immediate suspension, body camera footage released, discipline process initiated. This is how it needs to be.”
“And the officer who intervened to stop his colleague did exactly the right thing,” De Blasio added. “I commend him. That is what we need to see from all our officers.”
Video circulating on social media earlier on Sunday showed four officers pressing a man in a D’Angelo Russell Nets jersey to the ground on the boardwalk in Far Rockaway.
The 29-second clip shows one of the cops, identified as Afanador, with his arm around the man’s neck, as three other officers attempt to handcuff him.
“Yo stop choking him bro!” someone off-screen yells, as the man on the ground goes limp.
Another person can be heard saying: “Look, he’s out. Look officer, he’s out,” as one of the cops tells him to “back off.”
But the cop only lets go of the man’s neck after one of his fellow officers taps him on the back, the footage shows.
The NYPD swiftly released more than 30 minutes of body-camera footage from the incident, showing the man and two others getting angry with the cops over an earlier encounter, not seen in the video.
Police sources said cops were flagged down on the boardwalk around 8:45 a.m. by people who said a man had been throwing objects at them and harassing them.
The man picked up a can from a garbage and threw it at the cops when they approached him, the source said.
In the body-cam footage, the man is seen pulling something out of a trash can and then asking twice if the cops are scared before the officer wearing the camera rushes him.
Afanador can be heard explaining to a female bystander that the man is known to have a mental illness and saying “they’re all obviously intoxicated” about the trio.
“They were all talking all types of crazy stuff to us. We did nothing. I don’t care. Anybody can say whatever they want to us,” he told the woman. “What changed everything is when he grabbed something and squared off, and was gonna hit my officer who’s standing over there.”
“That’s when everything changed,” he continued. “The minute I saw him flex on him, that’s when he goes down, cause we don’t get hurt and we’re not gonna leave somebody violent out here who might do that to one of you or another innocent person.”
The man was taken to a hospital to be treated for a laceration on his head, the source said, denying that the man was unconscious and adding that he had been able to walk to the police car. He can be seen in the body-cam footage speaking following the arrest, telling the cops that he is bipolar and getting on them about arresting him on Father’s Day, saying he has a daughter in Haiti.
Lori Zeno, the executive director of Queens Defenders, which is representing the man, 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue told The New York Times that he did lose consciousness during the arrest. Zeno didn’t return a call from The Post on Sunday night.
“He was on such a hard chokehold that he couldn’t speak to say he couldn’t breathe,” she told the Times.
Community advocate Anthony Beckford, who is running for the 45th New York City Council seat in 2021, shared the clip on Twitter.
The cop performed “an Illegal modern day lynching chokehold on a Black Man until he was unconscious,” Beckford wrote.
“I demand his immediate firing & criminal charges for breaking the city & state ban. #DefundThePolice,” he added.
At least a dozen people protested the arrest in front of the 100th Precinct on Sunday afternoon, carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs, video posted on Twitter showed.
The New York City Council on Thursday passed legislation that made it a criminal offense for cops to use chokeholds. The State Legislature also passed their own ban on chokeholds that result in serious injury or death.
Afanador and another cop, Tyrone Isaac, were accused of beating 16-year-old Kaheem Tribble during a 2014 drug bust. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun found both officers not guilty following a week-long, non-jury trial in November 2016.
EDITOR'S NOTE: As Patrick Lynch, president of the union that represents the rank and file of NYPD officers says, "Now we are facing the possibility of being arrested any time we go out to do our job."
No comments:
Post a Comment