Punchy cops to be slapped
Beat vic vows to sue for $50 million
Disciplinary charges await officers involved in a caught-on-video incident in which a Manhattan man was punched by a cop, the NYPD announced Friday — and the recipient of the officer’s blows said he’ll sue the city for $50 million.
Donni Wright, 32, was part of a crowd outside a bodega near E. Ninth St. and Avenue D in the East Village on May 2 targeted by plainclothes police officers over a lack of social distancing.
Wright was punched repeatedly during an altercation with Officer Francisco Garcia and was hospitalized, his family says.
“Thank God what Police Officer Garcia did to me did not kill me like the officer killed George Floyd,” Wright said Friday.
A police department Internal Affairs Bureau probe recommended discipline “for several members of the department involved in the incident.”
“Charges are expected as early as next week,” the department said. It’s not clear what the charges will be.
Mayor de Blasio heralded the NYPD’s decision on Twitter. “No one is above the law in our city, not even those charged with enforcing it,” he wrote.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you cannot have a safe city if there’s no trust between police and community and the NYPD is working to earn and keep that trust,” the mayor wrote in a followup tweet.
Garcia is among four cops shown in video of the incident. During the encounter, Wright took “a fighting stance” in the encounter, cops said.
The video shows Garcia coming at Wright, pointing his Taser. “Move the f—k back right now. Don’t flex,” Garcia said.
Garcia then grabbed and punched Wright repeatedly, threw him to the ground, and placed a knee on his back.
Wright was charged with assault on a police officer, menacing and resisting arrest. The Manhattan DA said he would defer prosecution on the case.
Garcia was stripped of his gun and placed on modified duty after the video surfaced.
Two other people with Wright — Ashley Serrano and Shakiem Brunsom — were also arrested in the incident.
Garcia grabbed Serrano by the arms and other officers pinned Brunsom to a wall.
Police recovered $3,000 and marijuana during the initial encounter. Brunsom, 31, was charged with pot possession and resisting arrest while Serrano, 22, was charged with resisting arrest and weapons possession for allegedly having a stun gun.
At a press conference about Wright’s case Friday in Brooklyn, civil rights leaders and relatives of people killed by police announced they would go to Minnesota to protest the killing of George Floyd.
“We understand the officer was arrested but that’s not enough. We need all four officers to be arrested and convicted,” said Reverend Kevin McCall. “So we are going to Minnesota to raise the temperature in support.”
McCall said that he would be joined by Nicole Bell, whose husband Sean Bell was killed by police in Queens in 2006. McCall also said relatives of Eric Garner would accompany him to Minneapolis.
“It will only be when police officers are held accountable for criminal acts such as the one committed against Donnie Wright when he was assaulted brutally by Police Officer Garcia that the killing by officers of innocent individuals like George Floyd and Eric Garner will end,” said Sanford Rubenstein, Wright’s lawyer.