1950s - 1990s Arrest of Frank Lino In 1962,
Bonanno family soldier
Frank Lino was arrested for his alleged involvement in the fatal shootings of two Brooklyn police detectives. The detectives, aged 28 and 56, were shot dead during a holdup of a tobacco store in
Gravesend, Brooklyn by two armed men, who got away with a haul of $5,000. Lino was charged with the murders after providing one of the robbers with a car so he could flee to
Chicago. After being charged, he was taken to the 66th Precinct for an interrogation. During Lino's interrogation, he claimed that police officers drove staples into his hands and a broomstick up his rectum. He alleged that the abuse resulted in a broken leg and arm. Lino was later released on three years
probation after he threatened to sue the city for
police brutality. He also claimed that the uncontrollable blinking of his eyes he suffered for the rest of his life, was a direct result of the alleged beating.
Shooting of Clifford Glover On April 28, 1973, Officer
Thomas Shea shot 10-year-old Clifford Glover while in
South Jamaica, Queens, thinking Glover had a gun. On June 12, 1974, Shea was acquitted of wrongdoing by 11 white and one black jurors but was fired from the NYPD that year.
Beating death of Israel Rodriguez On June 13, 1975, Officer Thomas Ryan arrested Israel Rodriguez on attempted murder charges. Luis Santiago and three others had held Rodriguez and beat him on the roof of his building, forcing Rodriguez to hand over his stash of
narcotics. After arriving at the scene in response to being called about a burglary, Officers Ryan and Brown arrested Santiago and three others who were armed and in possession of narcotics. Ryan asked Santiago where they had come from, and Santiago directed Ryan to Rodriguez's apartment. Ryan then took Santiago to Rodriguez's door and ordered him to knock on the door. When Rodriguez saw Santiago, he fired through the door, thinking that Santiago had returned to do him additional harm. Ryan entered Rodriguez's apartment, subdued him, and placed him under arrest. After confiscating narcotics from the apartments, Rodriguez and Santiago were both beaten before being transported to the 44th Precinct. Rodriguez subsequently died from injuries sustained during the beatings. In 1979, Ryan jumped bail on the day he was to begin serving his sentence and remained at large until 1981 when he turned himself over to the
Queens'
district attorney.
Shooting of Randolph Evans On November 25, 1976, Officer Robert Torsney shot
Randolph Evans to death while responding to a call at Evans's home, a Brooklyn housing project. Torsney was found not guilty by
insanity defense (
automatism of Penfield epilepsy) in 1977 and was committed to
Queens Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital until July 1979 when state reviewers declared him no longer a threat to himself or society and released him, although he was still denied a
disability pension.
Chokehold of Michael Stewart On September 15, 1983, Michael Jerome Stewart was arrested for spray painting
graffiti on a wall of Manhattan's
First Avenue station. He was violent with the officers, ran to the street, lost consciousness, and died on September 28, 1983. In October 1983, the case went before a grand jury in Manhattan, but was dismissed seven months later when a juror was found to have violated court orders by conducting a private investigation into the charges. In February 1984, a second grand jury indicted three officers with criminally negligent homicide,
assault, and
perjury, while three other officers were only charged with perjury. Jury selection started in June 1985. On November 24, 1985, all six of the indicted officers were acquitted at trial. In 1987, the eleven involved officers and the MTA were sued for $40 million. In August 1990, Stewart's parents and siblings settled out of court for $1.7 million.
Shooting of Eleanor Bumpurs On October 29, 1984, after threatening to throw boiling
lye on Housing Authority personnel attempting to evict her, police forced their way into Eleanor Bumpurs's public housing apartment, where she lived alone. Her adult daughters wanted her to be hospitalized because she was
schizophrenic with hallucinations. Although NYPD procedure required a City psychiatrist to be called in a case of involuntary hospitalization, none was summoned to the scene. Bumpurs was being evicted, supposedly for nonpayment of rent. Although NYPD procedure required a City marshal to be present and restricted the role of police to protecting the marshal and the marshal's assistants, no marshal was summoned to the scene. It later turned out that she had paid her rent as usual but had not been informed of a recent rent increase. When police broke down the door, the elderly woman was standing at the far end of a hallway with a kitchen knife in her raised hand. The police attempted to restrain her by pinning her against a wall with an extended Y-shaped pole, but she swept away the pole and charged the officers. When the lead officer tripped and fell to the floor, she stood over him and attempted to stab him with the knife. Officer Stephen Sullivan fired two shots from his
12-gauge shotgun, sending one pellet into Bumpurs' hand and nine other pellets into her chest, killing her. Sullivan was tried and acquitted in 1987. In 1990, the city ended the legal proceedings by agreeing to pay $200,000 to the Bumpurs family estate.
Stun gun coercion of Mark Davidson On April 17, 1985, Mark Davidson was arrested by undercover detectives on charges of drug dealing and taken to the NYPD's 106th precinct in
Ozone Park, Queens, where he was beaten and tortured with a stun gun and threatened with torture on his genitals to make a false confession. On May 3, 1986, Sgt. Richard Pike, Jeffrey Gilbert, and Loren MacLary were each convicted of assault and were sentenced to four to six years.
Shooting of Edmund Perry On June 12, 1985, Edmund and his brother, Jonah, were walking in
Morningside Park where they encountered Lee Van Houten, an
undercover plainclothes detective on car burglary patrol. Perry tried to rob Van Houten by grabbing his neck. Van Houten fell to the ground and fired three shots, at least one in Perry's stomach, killing him immediately. Two witnesses supported Van Houten's version of the incident, resulting in no charges being filed. Jonah Perry was found not guilty of
mugging the officer in 1986. The NYPD settled a wrongful death suit related to Edmund Perry in 1989, paying money damages to the Perry family.
Shooting of Jose Garcia On July 3, 1992, Jose Garcia died from gunshots fired by undercover officer Michael O'Keefe after Garcia was chased into a building in
Washington Heights. Police asserted that Garcia, a known street drug dealer, had been carrying a concealed weapon. But witnesses to the struggle and residents of Washington Heights said they believed the shooting death of Garcia was unwarranted, triggering demonstrations on the block where Garcia was killed. "Fires were set," according to a report of the demonstrations published by the
New York Times, adding that "a car was overturned and debris rained down from buildings, leaving the block of the shooting, West 162d Street off St. Nicholas Avenue, littered with garbage, shattered bottles, vegetables, crates, slats of wood and even car parts." At the time of the demonstrations, police were unable to say "whether Mr. Garcia had pulled the gun on Officer O'Keefe or in some other way menaced the officer." In the end six days of demonstrations took place, during which protesters "tossed trash cans, bottles and rocks, broke windows, looted and overturned and burned police cars," leading to "139 arrests, one death and 90 injuries, including those suffered by 74 police officers," according to a subsequent report by the
New York Times. Fires were set in 14 buildings, and 121 vehicles were damaged. Two months after Mr. Garcia was shot and killed, a Manhattan grand jury voted not to file criminal charges against Officer O'Keefe after forensic evidence proved that both witnesses who claimed O'Keefe executed Garcia could not have seen the shooting from the position they asserted they were standing. In addition, the recording of Officer O'Keefe's
radio transmissions for assistance
corroborating his description of his life-and-death struggle with Garcia was released to the public. In an unusual move, Manhattan District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau published the grand jury report to ease public tension, but declined to criminally charge the two witnesses who touched off the riots with falsely reporting an incident and grand jury perjury by their false claims. Officer O'Keefe was assigned to the NYPD's 34th Precinct, a station house that became the target, just one month before Garcia's shooting death, of a federal investigation over allegations of police corruption. Reported corruption at the 34th Precinct inspired Mayor
David Dinkins to appoint the Mollen Commission to investigate police corruption.
Choking of Anthony Baez On December 22, 1994, 29-year-old
Nuyorican Anthony Baez was choked to death by police officer Francis X. Livoti in the
University Heights section of the
Bronx for accidentally hitting a police car with a ball. In 1998, Livoti was convicted of violating Baez's civil rights, and two other officers were convicted of lying on the witness stand at Livoti's trial. His widow later settled with the city for $3 million.
Sodomy of Abner Louima On August 9, 1997, NYPD Officer Justin Volpe in
Brooklyn sodomized
Abner Louima with a broken broom handle in a 70th Precinct bathroom after lying about Abner attacking him and arresting him. Officer Volpe eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Other officers were also implicated and convicted on charges stemming from the initial cover-up. Louima subsequently settled with the city for $8.75 million.
Shooting of Amadou Diallo On February 4, 1999, four plainclothes NYPD officers: Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, and Richard Murphy, who assigned to the
Street Crime Unit in the
Bronx fired 41 gunshots at
Amadou Diallo, killing him instantly. Diallo, whom the officers mistook for a since-convicted
rapist, was later found to be unarmed. The officers were subsequently acquitted in 2000, but the City of New York and the NYPD later paid out $3,000,000 to Diallo's parents in a
civil suit. Following the controversy three years later, the street crime unit was disbanded. A report from
Capital New York reported that 85 IP addresses belonging to the New York Police Department had made changes to
Wikipedia pages about people killed by NYPD and pages about NYPD misconduct, including this article and the main article about
Amadou Diallo. One of these edits changed the statement "Officer Kenneth Boss had previously been involved in an incident in which an unarmed man was shot, but continued to work as a police officer" to "Officer Kenneth Boss was previously involved in an incident in which an armed man was shot.” Two policemen associated with these edits were reported to receive only "minor reprimands".
Racist mailings of Thomas Pappas Thomas Pappas was a New York City police officer who mailed offensive racist materials from his home. Pappas was employed by NYPD from January 1982 until his termination in August, 1999. On at least two occasions in 1996 and 1997, Pappas received letters from the Mineola Auxiliary Police Department asking for donations with 7 reply envelopes enclosed for mailing those donations back. Pappas used those reply envelopes by filling the, with racially bigoted materials and mailed them back anonymously. When he was fired, Pappas sued to regain his position, arguing that his termination was in violation of his
rights of free speech. In 2001, the federal appeals courts sided with NYPD's decision to fire him.
2000s Shooting of Patrick Dorismond On March 16, 2000, Dorismond was approached by undercover officer Anthony Vasquez, who asked Dorismond how he and his partners could buy marijuana in an attempt to entrap him. Dorismond was outraged by the question, responded by punching Officer Vasquez, and a fight ensued. During this fight, Vasquez's backup officer moved in and claimed to have mistaken an action by Dorismond as reaching for a weapon and warned Vasquez, who drew his own firearm and shot the unarmed Dorismond to death. Much of the resulting controversy was about releasing Dorismond's sealed juvenile record to the media, claiming a person's right to privacy no longer existed once such persons die. Vasquez was never indicted by a grand jury for Dorismond's death, but his family later settled with the city for $2.25 million.
Shooting of Ousmane Zongo On May 22, 2003, 43-year-old Ousmane Zongo, an immigrant from
Burkina Faso, was shot four times by Police Officer Bryan Conroy in a
Chelsea warehouse. In 2005, Conroy was found guilty of
criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to five years' probation. In 2006, the city awarded the Zongo family $3 million to settle a
wrongful death suit.
Shooting of Timothy Stansbury On January 24, 2004, Housing Bureau officer Richard Neri Jr. accidentally fatally shot
Timothy Stansbury, a 19-year-old man who was trespassing on the roof landing of a
Bedford-Stuyvesant housing project. Stansbury was unarmed, but had apparently startled Neri by opening the roof door and suddenly encountering the officer. At that point, Neri discharged his service firearm and mortally wounded Stansbury. Although Commissioner Kelly stated that the shooting appeared "unjustified", a Brooklyn jury found that no criminal act had occurred and that the event was a tragic accident. Neri was thus cleared of all charges. The city later agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the Stansbury family. A grand jury declined to indict Neri, but Kelly later suspended him for 30 days without pay and permanently stripped him of his weapon.
Shooting of Sean Bell On November 25, 2006, plainclothes police officers shot and killed
Sean Bell on his wedding day and wounded two of his companions, one critically, outside of the Kalua Cabaret in
Queens. No weapon was recovered. According to the police, Bell had rammed his vehicle into an undercover officer and hit an unmarked NYPD minivan twice, prompting undercover officers to fire 50 rounds into Bell's car. Witness accounts of the event conflict with the account provided by the police. A bullet piercing the nearby
AirTrain JFK facility startled two Port Authority patrolmen stationed there. An undercover officer claims he heard one of the unarmed man's companions threaten to get his gun to settle a fight with another individual. On April 25, 2008, Justice Arthur Cooperman cleared Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of murder charges, and Detective Marc Cooper of reckless endangerment, in the death of Sean Bell. The city eventually settled with Bell's family for $3.25 million.
Subway sodomy scandal On October 15, 2008, five officers attempted to arrest Michael Mineo for smoking marijuana in a Brooklyn subway station. Days later, Mineo made accusations claiming he was
sodomized with a
police radio antenna by the officers. On December 9, 2008, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced that three of the officers, Richard Kern, Alex Cruz, and Andrew Morales, were indicted on criminal charges. According to the District Attorney, Officer Kern sodomized Mineo with his
expandable baton after the officers
handcuffed him. Officer Kern was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault, and faced up to 25 years in prison; and Officer Cruz and Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct, and faced up to 4 years in prison. All three officers were acquitted of all charges.
Kidnapping of drug dealers In 2008, NYPD transit officer Jorge Arbaje-Diaz kidnapped, robbed, and tortured drug dealers while on the force in 2008. On June 7, 2011, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after being convicted of kidnapping, robbery, and torture, and also was found guilty of stealing more than of
cocaine and $4 million in cash.
2010s Retaliation against ex-officer Adrian Schoolcraft In May 2010, Adrian Schoolcraft, a former NYPD officer, publicized recordings he made in secret while on duty, showing a pattern of corruption and retaliation against him for refusing to cooperate. Officers detained citizens without charges to meet quota and failed to report serious crimes, including rape, to make their department appear to be reducing crime rates. When the NYPD learned that Schoolcraft was privately investigating such corruption, concern for his mental health was used as an excuse for armed officers to kidnap and imprison him in a hospital. In 2010, he was suspended without pay and was filing suit against the NYPD. In further retaliation, lawyers for the city of New York, on behalf of the NYPD, served a subpoena on Graham Rayman, the journalist who reported about Schoolcraft's secret recordings, attempting to abridge the journalist's First Amendment rights by accessing Rayman's records. The city's subpoena to Rayman was seen as a way for the NYPD to gain access to Schoolcraft's tapes. The requests in the subpoena "were made without particularity and essentially seek widespread access to all of Rayman's files." However, a federal judge ruled that the city of New York could only access limited materials. In September 2015, the portion of the lawsuit against the NYPD settled, with Schoolcraft to receive $600,000 in compensation. The portion against Jamaica Hospital was settled in November 2015.
Asthma death incident In August 2010, 11-year-old Briana Ojeda died from an asthma attack after NYPD officer Alfonso Mendez denied her mother's pleas to perform
cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Ojeda's mother allegedly was driving her daughter to the hospital when she took a wrong one-way turn on a neighborhood street and stopped to ask Officer Alfonso Mendez for help. Ojeda's mother claimed Mendez smirked at her and said, "I don't know CPR," and tried to ticket her. A bystander performed CPR, and by the time an ambulance arrived, Mendez had left. After a one-week manhunt, Mendez was identified and has been suspended without pay indefinitely. "Indeed, it is tragic that Ms. Torres felt a sense of relief when she initially encountered Officer Mendez because she believed a uniformed officer of the law could help her," Judge Jiminez-Salta wrote. "However, there is no policy in the New York Police Department which requires officers to know and to be willing and able to perform CPR." The incident led to the passing of
Briana's Law in New York.
Arrest of Michael Premo Occupy Wall Street activist
Michael Premo was arrested on December 17, 2011, and charged with assaulting an officer. Prosecutors argued, and the arresting officer gave sworn testimony that Premo "charged the police like a linebacker, taking out a lieutenant and resisting arrest so forcefully that he fractured an officer's bone." The defense located a video that was taken by freelancer Jon Gerberg, which contradicted the sworn testimony, instead showing officers "tackling [Premo] as he attempted to get back on his feet". Prosecutors claimed no video of Premo's arrest existed, yet the Gerberg video clearly showed an NYPD officer also filming Premo's arrest. Nick Pinto of Village Voice wrote that "information provided by the NYPD in the trial was fabricated to such a degree that the allegations made by the police officers have turned out to be quite literally the opposite of what actually happened.
Shooting of Ramarley Graham On February 2, 2012, 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was chased into his Bronx home by a unit of plainclothes NYPD officers. Once inside, Graham struggled with one of the police officers near the entrance to a bathroom. Graham was shot once in the chest by a police officer, and Graham was eventually transported to Montefiore Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. According to a police spokesperson, there was "no evidence" that Graham was armed. Initial statements did not explain what prompted the chase. Initially, police would not identify the officer who fired the fatal shot, but police said that a small amount of marijuana was found in the toilet. The shooting officer was later identified as Richard Haste, and first- and second-degree manslaughter charges were filed against him, to which Haste pleaded not guilty at his arraignment four months after the shooting. After the arraignment hearing, the
Bronx District Attorney said that the shooting was unjustified, since Graham had no weapon. In the time between the shooting and the arraignment, the Graham family demanded justice. "The shooting of Mr. Graham has become a flash point in the roiling debate over police aggression; his family has taken part in several vigils and rallies to press for criminal charges in the case, as well as highlight what some critics say is a bias shown by the police against young men of color,"
The New York Times reported. After a judge threw out the manslaughter charges against Haste due to a technicality in the proceedings of the first grand jury, a second grand jury voted not to file charges against Haste, leading the Graham family to demand a federal investigation into the unjustified police shooting. A lawsuit filed against the city was settled for $3.9 million in 2015.
Death of Kyam Livingston On July 21, 2013, 37-year-old Kyam Livingston died in NYPD custody after being arrested by officers of Brooklyn's 70th Precinct on charges of violating an order of protection. Upon arrest, Livingston was brought to Kings County Hospital for alcohol and drug testing, but was released in a few hours. She was then processed at the precinct and brought to Brooklyn Central Booking to await arraignment. After approximately 13 hours in custody, Livingston experienced stomach pain and diarrhea and began to repeatedly request medical assistance over the course of seven more hours. According to witnesses, NYPD officers on duty refused to issue Livingston any medical attention, stating that she was an "alcoholic" and threatening to "lose the paperwork" of Livingston and other women in the cell who were pleading for someone to come to her aid. It was further reported that Livingston was dead for at least 20 minutes before emergency medical staff arrived. Beginning in August 2013, there were repeated demonstrations in Brooklyn demanding the names of the officers on duty at the time of Livingston's death, the release of video surveillance tapes from the cell Livingston was detained in, and the full investigation and improvement of conditions at Brooklyn Central Booking jail. Livingston's family filed a Notice of Claim against the NYPD and other government entities as a prerequisite to an $11 million lawsuit, and called for the criminal prosecution of any police officer who denied medical attention to Livingston while she was in their custody. The NYPD Internal Affairs Division's investigation of the matter is ongoing.
Beating of Alexian Lien On September 29, 2013, motorcyclists participated in a rally called "Hollywood's Block Party" on
New York City's
Henry Hudson Parkway. One of the bikers pulled in front of Alexian Lien and slowed dramatically, an action sometimes referred to as "
brake checking". Lien stopped his vehicle and was quickly surrounded by bikers. Lien accelerated to escape and struck one of the bikers, critically injuring him. A chase ensued, ending in Lien being pulled from his vehicle and beaten. The attack was caught on video and garnered international attention. A number of bikers are facing
assault and other
criminal charges, and
legislation has been proposed to regulate
motorcycle rallies in
New York City. The NYPD faced criticism when some of the bikers involved in the chase and attack were identified as off-duty New York City police officers. Ten-year veteran and
undercover detective Wojciech Braszczok surrendered to authorities and was
arrested on October 8. An undercover narcotics detective has been identified by the press as being present but not participating in the assault.
Chokehold of Eric Garner On July 17, 2014, at 4:45 p.m., Eric Garner was approached by NYPD
plainclothes police officer Justin Damico, in front of a beauty supply store at 202 Bay Street in the
Tompkinsville neighborhood in Staten Island. After telling Damico and other NYPD officers, "I was just minding my own business. Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. It stops today!", Garner raised both arms but was then put into a
chokehold from behind by officer Daniel Pantaleo, to be subdued. While Garner repeatedly stated that he was not able to breathe, Pantaleo and other officers struggled to bring him down onto the sidewalk and have him put his arms behind his back. He died a few minutes later. The police waited seven minutes before giving Garner
cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Use of the chokehold has been prohibited by New York City Police Department policy since 1993. The NYPD later arrested Ramsey Orta, who is the civilian who recorded the video of the encounter. The final
autopsy report in Garner's death showed that he neither had drugs nor alcohol in his system, nor did he sustain head trauma. The autopsy suggested that his combative arrest, combined with his obesity and other health problems, may have caused his fatal heart attack. As a result of Garner's death, Police Commissioner
William Bratton ordered an extensive review of the NYPD's training procedures, specifically focusing on the appropriate amount of force that can be used while detaining a suspect.
Arrest of Ramsey Orta On October 5, 2016, Ramsey Orta, who filmed Eric Garner's murder, was targeted by the NYPD and arrested for weapons and drug charges. Orta filed one lawsuit, alleging that the NYPD had arrested him several times in retaliation for filming the Garner video. But in July 2016, Orta, saying he was “tired of fighting,” pled guilty to charges of selling heroin and other drugs to an undercover police officer, and to a charge of possessing an illegal handgun.
Shooting of Akai Gurley On November 20, 2014, NYPD Officer Peter Liang fired his pistol. The bullet hit the wall and ricocheted, hitting an unarmed 28-year-old
Akai Gurley at a Brooklyn housing project. Commissioner
Bratton stated that Liang had already drawn his weapon before encountering Gurley, but initially deemed the shooting an accidental discharge after an investigation. In 2015, Liang was suspended without pay and charged with manslaughter, negligent homicide, assault, reckless endangerment, and official misconduct. On February 11, 2016, Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct; he was fired by the NYPD the same day.
2020s Controversy surrounding Francisco Garcia On May 3, 2020, a video went viral of an NYPD officer repeatedly punching and tasering a man he was arresting for violating the city's
temporary social distancing requirement. Despite the fact that the person he was arresting, Donni Wright, was also shown to be resisting arrest and assaulting him, it was later revealed that the officer involved, Francisco Garcia, had a previous history of alleged brutality, resulting in seven lawsuits which were settled by the city for a total of $210,000. One notable incident included a controversial confrontation with a lesbian couple at a Harlem restaurant in 2016, where he allegedly shoved one of the two women and afterwards said "Take a picture of it, fucking{{Fix-span|link=Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not censored|text=censorship|title={{delink|{}}}|date={}|pre-text={}|post-text={}|content={}}} dyke.” ==Protest controversies==