OUTCRY AS PROTESTER, 75, STRUCK BY POLICE
THIS is the sickening moment a 75-year-old protester fell and struck his head after being struck by baton-carrying police.
It is the latest shocking image from the global protests over the death of George Floyd – the black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25.
Police in Buffalo, New York, initially said Martin Gugino ‘tripped and fell’, but two officers were suspended yesterday after a video of the incident was posted online.
It showed the pensioner out cold and bleeding from his head after he was shoved to the ground while police just walked past him.
It came as Donald Trump horrified protesters by referring to Mr Floyd in a press conference about the US job market.
Mr Trump said 2million more people were in work last month than in April, adding: ‘Hopefully, George is looking down and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country. This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody.’
Mr Gugino approached riot police outside Buffalo’s city hall on Thursday night when two of them pushed him back. Reporter Mike Desmond, who took the video, said Mr Gugino did not appear to be a protester, adding: ‘He walked a little bit, was standing there, and was hit with a club. He lost his footing after he was hit, fell back, hit his head on the concrete... and I could hear his head hit and then within a few seconds, blood started coming out.’
In the video, other protesters can be heard gasping in shock after hearing the sound of Mr Gugino’s head hitting the pavement. He was rushed to hospital, where he was in a serious but stable condition last night.
Mr Gugino’s friend Terrence Bisson said he had been a peace activist for many years, adding: ‘He’s a gentle person who really believes that he must stand up for what he thinks is right.’
US protesters were angered further when Mr Trump backed an incendiary letter that labelled protesters ‘terrorists’. John Dowd, the President’s former lawyer, said of protests outside the White House this week: ‘The peaceful protesters near Lafayette Park
Could hear his head hit the concrete
were not peaceful and are not real. They are terrorists using idle hate-filled students to burn and destroy.’
Mr Trump copied the letter to his Twitter account, saying he thought that it would be ‘of interest to the American people’. It emerged last night that two of the four officers arrested over Mr Floyd’s death – J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane – were just a few days on the force.