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Brooklyn Man Burned After Police Shove Him Into Hot Coals While Breaking Up Barbecue
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jun 17, 2020
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Sydney Pereira/Gothamist
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Jun 17, 2020
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A Brooklyn man plans to sue the NYPD after an officer tackled him during a barbecue on Memorial Day in Crown Heights, causing burns from hot coals and scrapes, according to a notice of claim his lawyer filed on Tuesday.
On May 25th, 20-year-old Tyreik Bowers and his family and friends were barbecuing outside their home on Montgomery Street near Nostrand Avenue when a group of plainclothes officers from the 71st Precinct's anti-crime unit responded. They were told to stop barbecuing and go inside because of social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the claim filed by attorney Sanford Rubenstein and civil rights leader Reverend Kevin McCall.
"This is really uncalled for, and this shouldn't be happening," Bowers said outside the 71st Precinct on Tuesday. "I'm just looking for justice...I just want justice, that's all."
The 71st Precinct's plainclothes anti-crime unit—technically disbanded on Monday—told them to stop barbecuing, but the reverend and Bower's lawyer allege they weren't given ample time before the barbecue crackdown escalated.
"They told them that they will—just give us a chance to clean up and get the people inside the house," McCall. "They didn't have patience."
"They took the food and the coal from the grill and they threw the food and the goals from the grill on the ground. That was fuel to the fire. The people began to be very irate and was very upset about what transpired," McCall said.
Video of the chaos shows an officer yelling "go inside," and as Bowers is moving up the stairs, he is taken back down the stairs to be detained. His shirt was pulled over his head at one point.
At the end of the video, Bowers was held face down on the ground with his hands behind his back, to the outrage of people watching and screaming during the encounter. One person yelled out, "Yo, there's coal in this fucking grill...There's coal in his face." Rubenstein said Bowers was the only person detained that evening.
McCall says the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating what happened, but the NYPD did not confirm this or answer other questions.
"We will assess the merits of these claims once the legal actions have been filed," NYPD spokesperson Mary Frances O'Donnell said in a statement.
Rubenstein's claim alleges that Bowers was held at the 71st Precinct holding cell until 5 a.m. the next morning, and then at Kings County Central Booking until 1 p.m. May 26th.
He was released without being charged with a crime or seeing a judge, the claim says. The Brooklyn District Attorney's office says there are no cases under his name.
Photos taken after the incident allegedly show the extent of Bowers's injuries:
Four photos of the 20-year-old's injuries provided by his lawyer.
McCall said he's "grateful" the plainclothes cop unit—which he described as the "thugs" of the NYPD—were disbanded, noting it was among his demands for Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
The barbecue crackdown in Crown Heights, which happened the same day police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, isn't the first in recent weeks. Videos show the NYPD violently arrested people for holding a barbecue in a fenced off courtyard in front of a building on Eastern Parkway after the de Blasio administration's curfew. The curfew was implemented to stop looting during demonstrations against police violence but ultimately resulted in mostly low-level detainments for unlawful assembly or being out past the curfew.
The NYPD did not confirm whether the barbecue was broken up for social distancing reasons related to the coronavirus. During NYC's stay-at-home order, Black New Yorkers made up two-thirds of arrests for social distancing. Another 24 percent were Hispanic. Just seven percent of social distancing summonses were made against white people.
Tagged
nypd
Crown Heights
brooklyn
Sydney Pereira
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