A Manhattan subway station tussle between NYPD officers and two teens started as a fare evasion incident, but ended in a bloody brawl and arrests, authorities say.
Wild video that has since gone viral showed the violent confrontation at the 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station in East Harlem on Saturday. Police initially approached the two teens, a boy and a girl, about skipping on their subway fare.
The cops told the pair to leave the station, which is when the boy started getting aggressive, police said.
The video shows the officer and teen fighting, with the officer holding handcuffs before the teenager starts throwing punch after punch at the officer's head. The officer fights back, before the younger man slams him into a subway gate and then places him into a chokehold on the station floor.
But the man who recorded the video said that an officer was the one who got physical first.
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"From what I saw and other witnesses saw, the cop did shove him back there," said Matthew Rue.
He said that the male officer and his partner went over to the two teens initially not because of jumping the turnstile, but rather because they were arguing loudly in the station.
"She's a female, he's a guy, they were just making sure she was OK," Rue said, adding that the officer then tried to physically push the teen girl out of the station.
"He initially calmly asked the cop to apologize," said Rue of the teen. But things only got more heated from there, and led him to start recording what was unfolding.
"What's going through my mind is, 'I hope this kid doesn't die," Rue said.
The NYPD says assaults on traffic officers are up 55 percent. Both officers were treated for their injuries and released from the hospital. The two teens were arrested and charged, including with assault on a police officer.
Police experts said that the teen, whose identity is being protected because he is a juvenile, is not exactly a stranger to crime. Sources told NBC New York he was arrested in 2021 for possession of a loaded gun.
Both then and after Saturday's incident, the teen was released on his own recognizance the following day, which some in law enforcement said is part of the problem.
"Arrested with a gun, he walks out. Fights with a police officer, he walks out. What's next, does he shoot someone? Kill someone?" asked former NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, now a contributor for NBC New York.
Monahan blames Raise the Age legislation that keeps the teen's cases in family court, not criminal court.
"There has to be some discretion with individuals like this, to see if they should be in much more severe situation," he said.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's office said that the teen was released after his first offense in 2021 because they view "community monitoring was the appropriate pre-trial determination for a 15-year-old child with no previous reports."
As for the teen's alleged actions against the officers, the DA's office said that "violence against our police officers is unacceptable." The prosecutor's office said that they agreed to send the case to family court as soon as possible, "where he would receive the age-appropriate interventions and supports he needs while being held accountable."
