The 86-year-old New York City man who was arrested on harassment charges after NYPD officers mistakenly burst into his apartment while he was making soup and hit him with a stun gun has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
Charges against John Antoine were dismissed by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson on Monday, five months after the 86-year-old was stunned by cops who were searching for a suicidal man in his 20s.
Antoine said he was chopping onions in October when five cops barreled into the kitchen of his Bergen Street apartment. When he turned to set his knife down, an officer fired his stun gun, hitting him in the neck. He said he was also kicked in the stomach.
"Just imagine you are a human being, to get this thing on your neck," Antoine said of the stun gun's diode. "That comes as a nightmare."
The arrest and stun incident appeared to have been a breakdown in communication between the cops looking for the suicidal man and dispatchers.
An 86-year-old New York City man says police wrongly used a stun gun on him while searching for a suicidal 23-year-old man.
A spokesman for the NYPD didn't comment on the dismissal of charges, but said "the responding sergeant demonstrated a level of intelligent restraint that is to be commended."
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Antoine's attorney, Scott Rynecki, has informed the city that his client plans to file a $5 million lawsuit for excessive force and falsely charging him with a crime.
