What to Know
- Another person believed to be responsible for the police assault in Times Square last month was arrested Tuesday morning, three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter tell NBC New York.
- A 17-year-old was arrested Tuesday by NYPD detectives and Homeland Security Investigations agents at a building in the Bronx, sources said.
- It is unknown what specific charges he faces. However, last Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted on felony and other charges seven individuals in connection with the same assault on police officers in Times Square that the teen is allegedly connected to
Another person believed to have taken part in a brawl with NYPD officers in Times Square last month was arrested Tuesday morning, three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter tell NBC New York.
A 17-year-old was arrested Tuesday by NYPD detectives and Homeland Security Investigations agents at a building in the Bronx, sources said.
Attorney information for the teen was not immediately known. It is also unknown what specific charges he faces, or if he would be charged as an adult or a minor. However, last Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted on felony and other charges seven individuals in connection with the same assault on police officers in Times Square that the teen is allegedly connected to.
Bragg's office presented the case to a grand jury last week amid mounting pressure over his decision not to seek bail for five of the six suspects apprehended. Top police officials and the union, as well as the governor's office, argued people who attack NYPD officers should face harsher immediate consequences than a follow-up court date.
For his part, Bragg said there was extensive confusion around the identity of the men, a group of whom are seen in blurry surveillance footage descending on the two officers in front of a 42nd Street shelter. Not helping matters: federal and local authorities have communication problems.
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The 17-year-old arrested Tuesday is allegedly one of the additional suspects police had still been searching for in connection to the Times Square attack. It comes after much of the narrative surrounding the attack and those arrested in connection with it may not have been as it seemed, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.
Bodycam video released by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office last Wednesday shows police telling the group of Hispanic men to move as they gathered on the edge of a sidewalk in Times Square. The I-Team found that the NYPD lieutenant who tried to arrest one of the men, who happened to be a migrant, in Times Square was once found liable in a police brutality case that cost New York City taxpayers $5 million in legal payouts.
According to a federal civil rights complaint, Lt. Ben Kurian, the cop seen on bodycam video wrestling with a migrant who was resisting arrest on a Times Square sidewalk, was once part of a group of officers accused of beating and choking a man in his own home back in 2011. In January, Kurian found himself in the middle of a controversial arrest again, when he tried to cuff a migrant for failing to scatter when asked to move from the sidewalk on West 42nd Street near 7th Avenue.
In the Times Square incident, the officer repeatedly yells “vamos,” urging the group of young men to disperse, but when one of the individuals fails to move fast enough, Kurian pushes him to the wall of an adjacent building, and a scuffle ensues with the suspect trying to get away — while several of his supporters try to block the arrest by physically pulling cops off of the suspect.
The I-Team was unable to reach Kurian for comment, but in the civil rights case, he denied using excessive force. He claimed he was the one being attacked as he responded to a 911 call and encountered a chaotic brawl already in progress inside the Queens residence.
Meanwhile, in the Times Square case, the NYPD said the reason police initially engaged the group of men was because they were blocking the sidewalk and the reason they tried to arrest the initial suspect, 24-year-old Yohenry Brito, was because he failed to comply with the order to move along. Brito has been indicted for assault in the second degree is now being held on Rikers Island. Six other co-defendants have also been indicted in the case which prompted uproar about the initial release of some defendants without bail.
NYPD brass have depicted the sidewalk altercation as a clear case of defying a police order.
“The crowd is given a direction to please disperse, that they’re blocking the sidewalk. Everybody disperses except for Mr. Brito,” said Joseph Kenney, NYPD Chief of Detectives. “He turned around and got confrontational with the police officers. He refused a lawful order. They attempted to place him under arrest and the melee begins.”
But not everyone agrees with the official NYPD characterization of the video.
“From what I’m looking at, it didn’t have to go this far," said Neville Mitchell, a defense attorney who is not involved with the case. "Words shouldn’t be enough for police to act the way they acted. You would want to make sure you have, in this city, police officers are able to de-escalate situations."
Mitchell said the bodycam video released by the Manhattan DA appears to show pedestrians were having no apparent problems passing on the sidewalk.