NYC police officer suspended after allegedly using banned chokehold on suspect
The NYPD has suspended an officer without pay after video emerges of an arrest of a Black man in Far Rockaway; Laura Ingle reports.
A 39-year-old NYPD officer was arrested and charged with strangulation and attempted strangulation after a video circulated of him apparently using a chokehold while making an arrest on a Queens boardwalk over the weekend, police confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.
Footage from the incident allegedly shows the officer, identified by the police department as David Afanador, tackling a black male suspect to the ground and placing him in a chokehold during an arrest Sunday.
In this photo taken from police body cam video, New York Police officers arrest a man on a boardwalk Sunday, June 21, 2020, in New York. New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea says a police officer was quickly suspended without pay after putting his arm around the man's neck because we are living in "unprecedented times." Shea announced the suspension on Sunday just hours after the officer used what the commissioner called "an apparent chokehold" during a confrontation on a boardwalk in the Rockaway section of Queens. (NYPD via AP)
In the video, a bystander was heard screaming at the group of four officers: “Yo, he’s choking ‘em, let ‘em go!” One of the officers was seen with his arm wrapped around the suspect’s neck. Another officer then appeared to signal at the first officer to let go.
The suspect, identified by his attorney as Ricky Bellevue, was seen in longer body-cam video taunting police before grabbing an unidentified object and asking an officer, “You scared, you scared?”
Afanador was initially suspended following the incident.
The incident came days after the New York City Council passed legislation that would make it a criminal offense for officers to use chokeholds, which were banned by the NYPD’s patrol guide nearly three decades ago, in all situations and by barring officers from sitting, kneeling or standing on a suspect’s chest and back during an arrest.
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Fox News' Frank Miles contributed to this report.
