The NYPD says its internal affairs division is investigating after a video was posted over the weekend that appeared to show officers push a pregnant woman to the ground when she tried to intervene as her son was being taken into custody.
The video, which the woman's attorneys say was captured on Fifth Avenue at 41st Street in Brooklyn's Sunset Park at around 2:15 a.m. Sunday, shows an officer who was trying to arrest another suspect grabbing Sandra Amezquita, who is five months pregnant, before pushing her belly-first onto the ground and then hopping atop her back.
The video then shows a second, unidentified woman being shoved to the ground in the middle of the street as she comes to help Amezquita.
Amezquita's attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, told media Wednesday that the 43-year-old woman suffered vaginal bleeding and bruises on her arms and stomach after the encounter. He said she has persisting abdominal pain and showed a photo of bruising on her stomach.
"Certainly a pregnant woman — any woman — should not be thrown the way she was and treated the way she was," said Rubenstein.
Amezquita said in Spanish, "I'm afraid what might happen to my baby. I pray to God that nothing happens to him."
Rubenstein said Amezquita and her husband were trying to help their 17-year-old son, who was being arrested on weapons possession charges for allegedly having a knife clipped to his belt, when she was tossed to the ground.
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A friend, Mercedes Hildago, said she tried to help and was also thrown to the ground.
"I went to tell the police that she was pregnant and they threw me away," she said in Spanish.
Amezquita was issued a summons for disorderly conduct. Her husband was charged with assaulting an officer for allegedly hitting one of the cops arresting their son, who is jailed on weapons and other charges.
The video surfaced about a week after another officer patrolling Sunset Park was suspended without pay after he was caught on camera apparently kicking a man who was on the ground at a street fair.
Follow Ida Siegal on Twitter @idasiegal4NY
