BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Two Buffalo police officers were charged with assault Saturday, prosecutors said, after a video showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester in recent demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.
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Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, who surrendered Saturday morning, pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault. They were released without bail.
McCabe, 32, and Torgalski, 39, “crossed a line” when they shoved the man down hard enough for him to fall backward and hit his head on the sidewalk, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said at a news conference, calling the victim “a harmless 75-year-old man.”
The officers had been suspended without pay Friday after a TV crew captured the confrontation the night before. If convicted of the felony assault charge, they face up to seven years in prison.
McCabe’s lawyer, Tom Burton, said after the arraignment that prosecutors didn’t have any grounds to bring felony charges. He said his client is a decorated military veteran with a clean record as a police officer.
“Nobody started out their day intending to hurt this fellow,” Burton said. He added that if the victim had followed commands to back off, “none of this would have happened.”
A phone message was left with Torgalski’s lawyer.
The footage shows the man, identified as longtime activist Martin Gugino, approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they cleared demonstrators from Niagara Square around the time of an 8 p.m. curfew.
Two officers push Gugino backward, and he hits his head on the pavement. Blood spills as officers walk past. One officer leans down to check on the injured man before another officer urges the colleague to keep walking.
The police officers “knew this was bad,” Flynn said of the video. “Look at their body language.”
The video of the encounter sparked outrage online as demonstrators take to cities across the country to protest racial injustice sparked by the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes.
“I think there was criminal liability from what I saw on the video,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a briefing Saturday. “I think what the mayor did and the district attorney did was right, and I applaud them for acting as quickly as they did.”
“What we saw was horrendous and disgusting, and I believe, illegal,” he added.
But dozens of Buffalo police officers who were angered over their fellow officers’ suspensions stepped down from the department’s crowd control unit Friday. The resigning officers did not leave their jobs altogether.
A crowd of off-duty officers, firefighters and others gathered on Saturday outside the courthouse in a show of support for the accused officers and cheered when they were released.
“It was tremendous, tremendous to see,” John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, told WIVB-TV. “I just think it’s a strong indication of the outrage basically over this travesty.”
Flynn said he understood the concerns of officers who don’t feel they are being supported and pointed out that he’s also prosecuting protesters “who have turned into agitators” and “need to be dealt with as well.”
“There will be some who say that I’m choosing sides here,” he said. “And I say that’s ridiculous. I’m not on anyone’s side.”
Hello its 2020. Some 40 years ago when I was in kid in yeshiva it was the norm for a rebbi to hit the children. Today no Rebbi would dare lift a finger. I’m not discussing right or wrong this is the fact. In 2020 when cameras are rolling everywhere and people have the opportunity to second guess the cops. Police should be trained how to handle arrest resisters, protesters, rabble rousers and any one they come in contact with, with minimal physical contact. I look at the cop pushing the 75 year old guy. Was there no other way to deal with him then to shove him? I’m not here to write the rules and procedures but they must be updated for 2020.
pushing a person back from where he should not be is not wrong. Leaving this stupid elderly schmoo on the ground isn’t right.
People have to learn that the protests are not the way to improve the black lives. The blacks have to improve their lives themselves. We can not do it for them.
Not one Buffalo cop on the video stopped to help the old guy, who was lying on the sidewalk with a concussion (according to the medical report). They walked by him, as if he was garbage on the ground. The two cops didn’t not have to forcefully shove him out of the way, as he could have been handled in a less aggressive manner. The Attorney for one of the cops blamed the victim for this incident, as is their usual modus operandi. It reminds me of a similar incident involving 75 year old Mr. Schick of Schick’s bakery in Boro Park. When the cops arrested him over a traffic dispute, one of them decided to retaliate against Schick for arguing with them. He thought that he would teach Schick a lesson by throwing him with force into the paddy wagon, while he was handcuffed. This was a similar incident as those two cops showed no respect for the older person, and shoved him like he was nothing to them.
It certainly does not seem like assault to me. I have not examined every frame in detail, but it seems as though the fellow wanted to interact with the police and did. That said, I wish him a speedy recovery.