{"id":213734,"date":"2026-04-29T06:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/213734\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:31:00","slug":"brooklyn-man-roughed-up-by-cops-in-liquor-store-arrest-caught-on-viral-video-sues-nypd-says-he-fears-for-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/213734\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn man roughed up by cops in liquor store arrest caught on viral video sues NYPD, says he fears for his life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timothy Brown hobbled into the Lower Manhattan offices of the Cochran Firm on the morning of April 28. He winced in pain as he rested his body weight on a cane, with his arm curled in a sling.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt humiliated, disrespected, and embarrassed, and I was brutally beaten for no reason. I work, I am a tax-paying citizen. What happened to me should never happen to anyone else. It was wrong, it was disgusting. My life will never be the same,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Sitting beside his mother and his attorneys Derek Sells and Mina Malik, the lawyers announced on Tuesday a bombshell lawsuit to the tune of $100 million. Sells charged that the firm is hitting the police department where it will hurt them most \u2014 their wallets.<\/p>\n

\"\"Timothy Brown hobbled into the Lower Manhattan offices of the Cochran Firm on the morning of April 28.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to get change is to hurt people in their pockets, and that\u2019s what we intend to do here. We want change. No more nice guy, we\u2019re going to get change,\u201d Sells said.<\/p>\n

According to Brown, he had just finished work as a home health aid on April 14 when he entered the Cobble Hill liquor store to purchase a bottle of wine. While inside, two cops approached him and accused him of working with a drug dealer.<\/p>\n

Things quickly spiraled out of control when the detectives attempted to make an arrest. A now viral video showed police punching Brown and throwing him to the ground, sending bottles flying and blood left smeared on the ground.<\/p>\n

Brown said he was also dragged through broken glass and left with a slice wound needing 36 stitches. He also reportedly suffered facial injuries. He was originally charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration; those charges were later dismissed by the Brooklyn DA\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no knowledge of who they were. I was in shock. I didn\u2019t understand what was going on. They said \u2018You\u2019re under arrest.\u2019 And I said,\u2019 why? I haven\u2019t done anything.\u2019 And before I knew it, they grabbed me and started punching,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

amNewYork reached out to the police department for comment. \u201cThe NYPD will decline comment on pending litigation,\u201d a spokesperson said.\n<\/p>\n

The day following the shooting, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch weighed in on the incident, herself calling it disturbing.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese videos are deeply disturbing, and the matter is under active investigation by the NYPD\u2019s Internal Affairs Bureau. The officers in question are modified. Their guns and shields have been removed,\u201d Tisch said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sitting in the law office at a conference table surrounded by news microphones and hunched over on his walking stick as his mother wept,Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

Tisch ordered Chief of Department Michael LiPetri to lead a 90-day review of the Narcotics Section.<\/a> This investigation will review current policies and practices within the unit and determine whether changes are needed. Police sources reported the two detectives should have been wearing body-worn cameras but were not, which is part of why their shields were removed so swiftly.<\/p>\n

Eight individuals who worked in that unit were also either transferred or placed on modified duty. But Sells told amNewYork that this is not enough.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, that\u2019s the way these things always go,\u201d Sells said. \u201cSimply put them in the, what we call, the rubber bullet squad, where they don\u2019t do anything, they don\u2019t interact with anybody in the public. They get paid. And then after the press dies down, then they get put back onto regular duty. So, at this point, it\u2019s just standard operating procedure from our perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting in the law office at a conference table surrounded by news microphones and hunched over on his walking stick as his mother wept, Brown stated that the experience changed his life and that he is left in fear of police officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear for my life,\u201d Brown said. \u201cEvery time I see an officer, I am scared, I hear sirens, I jump.\u201d
\n\"\"\u201cI fear for my life,\u201d Brown said. \u201cEvery time I see an officer I am scared, I hear sirens, I jump.\u201dPhoto by Dean Moses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timothy Brown hobbled into the Lower Manhattan offices of the Cochran Firm on the morning of April 28.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,84320,9,24,63,103,104],"class_list":["post-213734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-lawsit","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}