The New York Police Department has opened an internal investigation after video showed officers punching and kicking a man who authorities initially believed to be a suspect in a drug deal but later said was not.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
The incident occurred Tuesday at BK Wine Depot in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn, where officers were engaged in a “planned and supervised undercover operation” related to complaints about drug sales in the area, police said in a statement Wednesday.
Graphic video of the arrest, posted on social media by a witness Tuesday, showed the officers tackling the bloodied man to the floor in the store and holding him down. It drew condemnation online and prompted public response from city officials.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared the video Wednesday on X and said a “full investigation” is being launched.
“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable,” Mamdani wrote. “Officers should never treat a person this way.”
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters Wednesday that she understood the community’s interest in the matter, “because it is an upsetting video.”
Tisch said on X that the video is “deeply disturbing” and that the police department’s Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating.
“The officers in question are modified. Their guns and shields have been removed,” Tisch said. The police department also confirmed Wednesday that the officers involved have been placed on “modified duty” amid the investigation.
In the undercover operation, an officer purchased crack cocaine from someone, and the payment for the drugs was provided to another person who was working with him, police said. The associate was described as a Black male wearing a white shirt and green shorts, according to police.
Officers observed a man who fit the description of the associate across the street, and officers approached him, identified themselves as New York police and tried to arrest him inside the store, police said.
A nearly 8-minute-long video starts with a man in a white shirt, teal shorts and a bucket hat being held against a cabinet in the store by two men, one in a New York police vest and a second in a black shirt and jeans without any obvious police identification. Seconds later, the man in a New York police vest punches the unidentified man in the face.
The man is held up against a glass wall, and it appears that he hits his face against the wall while he struggles with the two men, the video shows.
The man in the black shirt, who later identifies himself as a detective, begins to repeatedly punch the man in the teal shorts. At one point, he jabs his knee upward into the man’s chest, and the man falls into a rack of wine bottles before he hits the floor. Both men then drag him toward the door, where he rolls over onto his stomach as instructed, the video shows.
“Y’all violating, punching that man for no reason,” a woman can be heard telling the officers.
“Can’t resist arrest,” one of the officers replies as he holds the man down on the floor.
“He wasn’t resisting. He was not resisting arrest,” she says.
The officer in the black shirt argues with bystanders while the man in the police vest appears to be calling someone and the injured man breathes heavily on the ground, the video shows.
The man on the ground tells the officers that “it’s not me” and that he has a security license in his pocket, according to the video.
The video shows blood on the floor of the store and the officers discussing needing an ambulance for the man’s leg injury as a crowd gathers outside.
Officers yell at the man to put his hands behind his back as he lies on his side. His back is to the camera, and at one point he appears to yell in pain while an officer yells at him to “stop resisting” as they try to handcuff him.
The officer in the vest stands up after the man is in handcuffs and stomps on his body before he opens the door to the store. His partner tells the man on the ground that he is “covered in blood” and to stay where he is.
The officers and the bystander argue while the officers appear to wait for help after the man is handcuffed.
A fourth unidentified man who is not in police uniform enters the store toward the end of the video and tells them to get the handcuffed man up. They leave the store, and more officers join them on the sidewalk as they lead the man away, the video shows.
Police said that the man in the video was charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration and that he received a desk appearance ticket.
“This individual was not charged with any offense related to the sale of narcotics because it was later determined that he was not involved in the drug sale,” police said.
The man who sold the drugs to the undercover officer was arrested and charged with criminal sale of a controlled substance, police said.
