What to Know
- A man was arrested after cellphone video of him urinating on a police car as a crowd of onlookers cheered circulated on social media
- Tauqeer Boyd, 22, of West Orange, was taken into custody less than 24 hours after the Saturday night video was captured in Newark
- He was also arrested in October for burglarizing a police cruiser parked outside Hoboken Police Headquarters, authorities say
A 22-year-old West Orange man was arrested over cellphone video cops say shows him urinating on a police SUV in Newark.
Tauqeer Boyd was taken into custody late Sunday, less than 24 hours after he allegedly used the cruiser as toilet and just a few hours after police were notified of the footage circulating on social media.
The video of Boyd allegedly urinating on the marked police SUV as he was cheered on by onlookers was taken on Saturday night outside the CityPlex 12 movie theaters, authorities said. No cops were in the vehicle at the time; they were on a patrol assignment nearby at the time, officials said.
The next afternoon, the video came to the attention of the police and a warrant was issued for Boyd. He was arrested a few hours later and charged with lewdness, criminal mischief and disorderly contact.
"We absolutely will not tolerate disrespect of our police,” Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a statement. "We take this as a personal insult. When our department became aware of this, we moved quickly to apprehend the suspect."
It's not Boyd's first arrest over something involved a police car. Last October, he was arrested for allegedly burglarizing one parked outside Hoboken Police headquarters.
In that case, Boyd and another man allegedly rummaged through the cruiser, threw two summons books on the ground and unzipped a Narcan kit. The status of that case wasn't immediately clear Tuesday.
It also wasn't known if Boyd had an attorney.
