BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) — The NYPD is facing a shake-up in the wake of a video of officers beating a man during an arrest inside a Brooklyn liquor store in a case of mistaken identity.
Two officers depicted in the violent video were placed on modified leave, and at least six members of the associated Narcotics Squad were transferred, disbanding that team within the unit, according to law enforcement sources.
The officers and unit involved have been under investigation since the video surfaced last Wednesday. The video shows police punching a man in the head, slamming him into the counter window, shoving him into a shelf of glass bottles that shattered, and dragging him across the glass-strewn floor, causing him to bleed.
In the video, the man yelled in pain, “My leg!” while onlookers yelled at the police.
“Y’all violating the First Amendment for no reason,” said the woman recording the video.
Abelee Moran, the woman who filmed the encounter, said she wished she could have done more for the man but said she “was scared that they would beat me the way that they beat him.”
“They just started hitting him,” said Moran. “They didn’t give him a chance to put his hands up.”
Police went after the man in the video in a case of mistaken identity while investigating complaints of drug sales in Cobble Hill, according to authorities. However, the man was found to have no connection to the drug sale or the dealer, the NYPD said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the actions of the officers “extremely disturbing and unacceptable.”
No charges have been filed against the officers; however, the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is reviewing the incident.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here.
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