NYPD Investigating Video That Shows Officer Kicking Colleague During Arrest

The NYPD says it is investigating after video was released that appears to show a plainclothes officer kicking a colleague in the head and punching a suspect during an arrest at a Brooklyn subway station earlier this year.

DNAinfo first released the video, which it says was shot by a bystander in Coney Island's Stillwell Avenue station in January.

It shows a uniformed officer and an undercover cop in a jacket and sock hat trying to arrest an alleged farebeater near one of the station's emergency exits. The suspect and undercover officer tussle and go to the ground while the other officers try to cuff the man.

Several other officers arrive at the scene. One, wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and heavy work boots, walks up to the suspect and officer on the ground and appears to swiftly kick his colleague. The impact was hard enough that a dull thud can be heard in the video.

After the kick, a woman standing off camera can be heard saying, “He kicked the cop” as the officers swarm the suspect.

The officer who was kicked is then pulled away from the suspect. He is holding the back of his head and appears to be slightly dazed as his comrades pull him away.

Meanwhile, the video shows the officer who kicked the officer join other police officers holding down the suspect. That officer then appears to punch the suspect in the side of the face as several others cops tell him to stop resisting.

After the suspect is cuffed and pulled to his feet, he looks at the camera and says. “Y’all saw that, right?,” apparently in reference to the punch.

Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association union, said in a statement the cellphone video was an "amateur production" that did not provide enough information to come to any conclusion about what happened. 

"The rush to judgment will leave this city with an impotent police department where police officers will be afraid to act and neighborhoods will be left to the mercy of the criminals," he said. "Resisting and interfering with an arrest is against the law. Just anyone with a smart phone camera should not be allowed to interfere with police operations and set the agenda." 

DNAinfo says the video garnered nearly 1 million views online before being taken down earlier this year. It resurfaced after a bystander posted video of Staten Island police putting Eric Garner in a chokehold in July. Garner died and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. 

Since then, several other videos showing apparent police misconduct have been posted online.

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