SHOVE CHARGES FOR FINEST
Faces assault rap, suspended after vid shows him tossing protester
A city cop was arrested for assault and freed without bail Tuesday for his videotaped shove of a protester whose head smacked the pavement as she marched with George Floyd demonstrators in Brooklyn, officials said.
NYPD Officer Vincent D’Andraia, 28, surrendered at Brooklyn Criminal Court and was charged with thirddegree assault, attempted assault, menacing and harassment for the violent May 29 run-in with protester Dounya Zayer, 20, near the Barclays Center. The young woman suffered multiple seizures and a concussion after the assault where she was jolted “right out of her shoes,” her lawyer said.
D’Andraia was suspended by the NYPD after the video emerged. He is the first city cop to be criminally charged in connection with George Floyd protests enforcement.
Prosecutors allege D’Andraia called Zayer a “stupid f—-ing b—-h” before knocking the cell phone out of her hand and shoving her to the street, “causing her to strike her head on the pavement.”
The attack, captured on a video that quickly went viral, fueled a firestorm of criticism against the NYPD’s handling of protesters angered by Floyd’s death beneath the knee of a Minneapolis cop.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he was “deeply troubled” by D’Andraia’s attack on Zayer.
“I fully support the longheld American tradition of nonviolent protest,” Gonzalez said Tuesday. “I cannot tolerate the use of excessive force against anyone exercising this constitutionally guaranteed right. This is especially true of those who are sworn to protect us and uphold the law.”
D’Andraia, assigned to Brownsville’s 73rd Precinct before his suspension from the force, was barred from contacting Zayer after a judge approved an order of protection for the victim following a brief arraignment.
Deputy Inspector Craig Edelman, the commanding officer of the 73rd Precinct, was transferred out when the video showed him doing nothing to stop the incident.
“Police brutality has gone largely unchecked in this city and D’Andraia’s arrest does not signify justice. Had the violent assault not been caught on video this would have been business as usual,” said Zayer’s attorney Tahanie Aboushi.
The lawyer was outraged by Edelman’s transfer to another precinct: “They essentially had another community inherit this ticking time bomb.”
D’Andraia also faces an NYPD internal disciplinary hearing. His attorney, Stephen Worth, said the department took away D’Andraia’s weapons when he was suspended.
Worth deferred all calls for comment to the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents D’Andraia. The union is
blaming D’Andraia’s arrest on overzealous prosecutors and the cop’s supervisors.
“Once again, Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD brass are sacrificing cops to save their own skin,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement. “They created the failed strategy for managing these demonstrations. They sent police officers out to do the job with no support and no clear plan. They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice.”
During a press conference with 200 law enforcement union leaders, Lynch said he was dismayed by the DA’s rush to prosecute D’Andraia.
“We have DAs from all our counties, from all across the state, saying we will not prosecute the criminals who looted, who rioted,” Lynch said. “Who the DA did prosecute was the police officer whose boss sent him out there to do a job and was put in a bad situation in a chaotic time.”
The Legal Aid Society, longtime critics of NYPD misconduct, said D’Andraia would still be patrolling the streets without the video clip.
“D’Andraia’s misconduct typifies a culture of impunity that thrives amongst the rank-and-file at the NYPD,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “In the absence of an NYPD discipline system that truly holds officers accountable for misconduct and discourages inappropriate or even criminal behavior, our local district attorneys must provide that check on law enforcement.”
In Zayer’s video, which she posted on social media, she is standing near D’Andraia, who tells her to get out of the street. She asks him why and then the officer swings at her cell phone, ending the clip.
One side of Zayer’s phone was cracked when she was sent tumbling to the street, according to court papers.
In a second video, posted by a bystander, D’Andraia shoves Zayer aside — knocking her back onto the pavement, where she hit her head. The officer keeps walking.
“My head hurts. I haven’t slept for three days,” Zayer said last week at a press conference outside Barclays Center. “Since what happened, I haven’t stopped throwing up. I haven’t been able to sleep. And I can’t stop picturing what happened.”