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Video Shows Officers Beating Man With His Hands Up In Brooklyn Bodega
By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jul 22, 2015
Modified Jul 22, 2015
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By
Nathan Tempey
Published Jul 22, 2015
Modified Jul 22, 2015
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Newly released surveillance video shows police officers beating and arresting a man who was surrendering with his hands up inside a Bedford-Stuyvesant bodega on July 7th. The officers confronted Thomas Jennings, 24, on suspicion of being involved in a robbery at a nearby fried-chicken restaurant that allegedly netted him and another man two slices of pizza and some condiment shakers. The Daily News, which obtained the footage, summarized the differing accounts of what happened at the New York Fried Chicken on Saratoga Avenue.
[Jennings and the other, unidentified man] became embroiled in a dispute with an employee over the price of two slices of pizza.
Jennings told The News that the price was $3 and he was a dollar short, so he stepped outside and borrowed money from someone to cover the tab.
The criminal complaint states that Jennings actually stayed, while the other man left and returned brandishing a switchblade, saying he wouldn't pay. The two left together with pizza in two boxes and some shakers, according to the document.
Police caught up to Jennings at a nearby bodega on Bainbridge Street. Describing the officer who rushes into the frame and punches him three times in the face, Jennings told the News, "I didn't ever know it was coming." In the criminal complaint describing the arrest, the officers involved didn't mention using force, but said Jennings resisted arrest "in that [he] flailed [his] arms."
Following his arrest, Jennings was jailed for six days, then released on his own recognizance. He is facing charges of weapon possession, menacing, possession of stolen property, felony robbery, and petit larceny. The News notes that Officer Lenny Lutchman, the officer who appears first in the video and drives a baton repeatedly into Jennings's back, faced a previous lawsuit alleging excessive force. It settled for $12,000.
Jennings performs with the R&B-rap group BeenFamily. His lawyer, Amy Rameau, said that he is "an artist, not a violent criminal" like the arresting officers, and that she wants to see them locked up.
"I’m going to see these officers prosecuted for what they did to my client," she said. "If someone else did that guess where they’d be: in jail."
The Daily News and the Post pointed out Jennings's history of arrests. Rameau condemned the focus on his record and said that all of his contacts with the criminal justice system stem from custody disputes with the mother of his four-year-old son. She emphasized that they have no bearing on what happened earlier this month.
"Whether he’s been arrested, what the hell does that have to do with this?" Rameau said. "[The officers] didn’t know anything about him when they attacked him."
Jennings has pleaded not guilty and is pushing to have the charges dropped so that he can sue for false arrest and excessive force, Rameau said. He has another ongoing lawsuit against 81st Precinct officers claiming false arrest and brutality stemming from an incident last April. In that suit, he says four cops beat him, breaking his nose, and arrested him for allegedly violating a protective order. They ignored a family court document he showed them declaring his right to pick up his son, he claims. The charges were dropped, according to the lawsuit.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and NYPD Internal Affairs are looking into the latest case.
Tagged
Bedford-Stuyvesant
false arrest
lawsuit
nypd
pizza robbery
police brutality
Nathan Tempey
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