New York

NYPD Uses Taser on Staten Island Man With Health Issues, Family and Attorney Say

Police responded to the Staten Island home of William Colon, 24, after a neighbor called 911 after hearing Colon and his girlfriend arguing

What to Know

  • A man with health issues was brutally punched and tased in his home by police responding to a 911 call, his family and attorney say
  • Police responded to the Staten Island home of William Colon, 24, after a neighbor called 911 after hearing Colon and his girlfriend arguing
  • Police arrested Colon for assaulting his girlfriend, but both he and his girlfriend say he never assaulted her, according to their lawyers

A Staten Island man with health issues was brutally punched and tased in his family’s home by police responding to a 911 call, his family and attorney say.

Police responded to the Staten Island home of William Colon, 24, on Sept. 28 after a neighbor who heard Colon and his girlfriend arguing called 911.

Video taken by Colon’s brother shows officers punching and tasing Colon — who suffers from several diabetic-related health conditions, stands at around 4-foot-8 and weighs approximately 85 pounds — as he lies face down on a bed.

Colon was only told later that he’d been arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, his attorney Christopher Pisciotta, of the Legal Aid Society, said.

Pisciotta and Colon’s family members, however, claim Colon never attacked his girlfriend.

“What was clear from the video was the brutality and the excessive force that was used in this case,” Pisciotta said.

Colon’s girlfriend’s lawyer Lou Gelormino, meanwhile, told NBC 4 New York the girlfriend denies that Colon hit her.

“She stated to me that Mr. Colon did not hit her, and she did not call the police,” Gelormino said in a statement. “She further stated that she was taken to the police station under the false pretense that they were going to drive her home.”

“When she got to the station the police threatened to charge her with various crimes unless she made a statement attesting to the fact that Mr. Colon hit her and then said the police officers told her exactly what to write,” Gelormino added.

NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill declined to comment on the video, but said the department would take a look at it and “see if the force that was used was necessary.”

Police and the Staten Island DA’s office are both investigating the incident.

Colon’s mother told News 4 she hopes the officers who arrested her son will be held accountable.

The arrest nearly put her son in the hospital, she said. 

“No one should ever have to go through that at the hands of police,” she said. “There was no one there to protect and serve that day. No one.”

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