A pair of NYPD cops were placed on modified duty Wednesday for repeatedly punching a suspect refusing to be handcuffed in a wild caught-on-camera clash in a Brooklyn liquor store that Mayor Mamdani is calling “unacceptable.”
The clash, in which the cops are recorded crashing into a display of wine bottles while punching the man in the face and body as he resists arrest, is under review by the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau, officials said
“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable,” Mayor Mamdani said on social media. “Officers should never treat a person this way. The NYPD is conducting a full investigation.”
The pair of Brooklyn North narcotics detectives involved in the clash thought the man matched the description of someone who had just made a drug purchase, a police source said.
He was wearing similar clothes as the suspect — a white T-shirt, shorts and light green hat — but had no drugs on him when he was arrested, the source said.
“It is upsetting to view,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said of the video. “We’ll have more to say about it as that investigation unfolds.”
“I understand the community interest in it,” she added. “I believe that the two officers have been or are being modified at this time.”
When cops confronted the suspect, he refused to be taken into custody, sparking the clash.
Once he was finally arrested, he was not charged with drug possession but was given a desk appearance ticket for resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration, police sources said.
A seven-minute video first posted online by Sinistratm shows the two plain-clothes cops struggling to get the man’s hands behind his back in the back of the store near a set of glass-doored refrigerators.
The cops are seen striking the man six times. They then shove his head first into a refrigerator door before all three fall into a display of wine bottles, sending the bottles shattering to the floor, the video shows.
One of the cops grabs the man by the foot and drags him toward the store’s front door as the pair try to get him on his stomach so they can handcuff him.
“Roll over! Stop resisting!” one cop screams repeatedly in the video. “Put your hands behind your back.”
The man cut his leg on the broken glass during the fight and was bleeding heavily as cops continued to try to get his hands behind his back, the video shows.
One cop is seen stomping the floor near the man’s head but its not clear if he made contact with the suspect. The same officer then stands on the back of the suspect’s knee to immobilize him.
“Give me your hand!” another cop screams. “Stay there! You’re covered in blood!”
The man refused to do so, prompting witnesses on the other side of the glass doors watching the arrest to demand he comply.
“Hey big dog! Give him your hands or your going to bleed out!” one witness is heard yelling in a second cellphone video of the arrest.
The suspect claimed he was innocent and that he was a local security guard. At times during the arrest, he’s screaming to someone recording, telling them to reach out to his mother and tell her what happened.
“I got a security license in my pocket!” he screamed. “I’m coming to work. I swear to God!”
Inside the liquor store, the two women recording the clash yelled at the cops.
“Why are you punching him? … You punched him for no reason,” one screamed. “I’m recording you guys, you f—ing pigs!”
“You can’t resist arrest!” one of the cops yelled back at her, threatening to arrest her. “You want to interfere with this investigation?”
As the officers wait for an ambulance, one of the witnesses inside the store gets on the phone with someone, relaying what happened.
“Shut up!” one officer screamed at the two women as he tries to call for medical help on his cell phone.
“You’re frustrated which is why you want us to shut up,” one woman countered.
“Why don’t you shut up because you’re annoying!” the officer yelled back, adding, “Why don’t you get a job?”
After several minutes the officers pick up the man and take him to an ambulance outside.
A separate video shows the suspect in the street before being put in the ambulance, his face battered and bruised.
The arresting officers had their badges out and in the video give witnesses their names and badge numbers.
With Rocco Parascandola