NYPD Officer Suspended in Teen Punch Captured on Video

The NYPD says it has suspended a police officer after a video was posted online that appeared to show him repeatedly punching a 16-year-old suspect as other officers tried to arrest the teen.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows several officers trying to cuff the 16-year-old suspect when a plainclothes officer in a camouflage jacket runs up and punches the suspect several times in the torso. The woman who posted the video said that that the teen was punched on Monday on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

The video shows the teen pushed up against a car, surrounded by three officers. The plain clothes officer rushes into the frame and appears to quickly jab the teen in the three times.

As the boy is hit, a woman nearby can be heard yelling “Hey, hey hey! Stop it! Get off him!” Another witness then identifies herself as a lawyer and says “I can’t believe he just did that after everything that’s happened.”

Police said the teen and another suspect were being arrested after allegedly attacking a person with a cane. The charges the teen faces aren't clear.

The grand jury decision earlier this month to not indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner has highlighted the tense relationship between police and minority communities in New York City, and tens of thousands of people have protested in recent weeks. 

Contact Us