NBC New York’s Gus Rosendale reports.
Video showing a NYPD officer appearing to hit a young girl while trying to detain her teen sister during a Staten Island street fight has led to the cop's suspension by the department.
The violent after-school encounter between minors and police was caught on camera, and has been making the rounds on social media ever since. Police said it started with a fight at a bus stop between teenage girls.
The incident occurred near the intersection of Willowbrook Road and Forest Avenue in the Port Richmond section just before 3 p.m. on Tuesday, according to witnesses and police sources, as the officers were said to be trying to break up the fight between two sisters and another girl.
New video appeared to show officers trying to de-escalate the situation. Witnesses and police sources said the officer went to detain a 14-year-old girl when her 12-year-old sister swung at the officer — and he swung back. The NYPD said that the older sister reached for the officer's handcuffs and also hit him in the head.
Police sources said the intersection where the incident occurred is known as a "trouble spot" near Port Richmond High School and I.S. 5, which is why the officers were stationed there to begin with.
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The 14-year-old was arrested and the younger sister given a juvenile report for the alleged assault. Their mother is calling for a full investigation of what went down.
"They’re supposed to be protected by the police officers and I didn’t expect them to get hurt," said Taneesha Robinson, who added that her daughter is doing better and "basically has a headache now." Robinson said it's not up to her if the officer should face further discipline.
As for the officer, who has been on the job for 14 years, he has been suspended, according to the NYPD, with an internal investigation underway into what led up to the encounter.
"The actions of those officers is under investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau," the department said in a tweet.
The officer's name has not been released, and police do not typically identity minors linked to a crime.
The union for the suspended officer, the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement that the officers involved "are entitled to due process, not summary judgment based on a few seconds of video...What is needed now is a thorough investigation of the entire circumstances, not just what has been posted online."
Retired NYPD School Youth Officer Carol Smith agrees with the union, and doesn't agree with the suspension.
"We worked with a lot of kids. A lot of schools. And we had our share of kids fighting," said Smith. "She felt she needed to fight with the officer, he used the right amount of force to get the situation under control. Needs investigation. They'll see that was wrong."
NYC Mayor Eric Adams addressed the incident during a Wednesday press conference, saying that police had intervened after a young girl was getting jumped by two other minors, and said there will be bodycam footage from the officers to be reviewed.
"It was NYPD — not school safety agents — and so we are going to look at the bodycam from the police officers. That’s why the body cams are good. We’re going to use the video that was posted on Instagram. That's where it first came to my attention," Adams said, adding "I was not happy with what I saw on the video."
