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Two Buffalo Cops Charged With Felony Assault After Shoving 75-Year-Old Activist
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 6, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Jun 6, 2020
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Two Buffalo police officers who were caught on video pushing a 75-year-old peace activist to the ground were charged with second-degree felony assault charges Saturday.
The officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, turned themselves in this morning, according to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. They were arraigned in virtual court proceedings at Buffalo City Court. Both were released on their own recognizance, the local NBC affiliate WIVB reported Saturday.
The state's penal code dictates that these charges are felony-level because of the victim Martin Gugino's advanced age and because the officers were at least ten years younger, according to Flynn. If convicted, they face up to seven years in prison.
In a graphic video taken by a WBFO reporter, a crowd of heavily armed officers from the Buffalo Police Emergency Response Team is seen approaching Gugino during a Black Lives Matter protest Thursday at Niagara Square. Gugino tries speaking to McCabe and Torgalski when an officer yells “push him back” and they shove the man, who hits the ground with a thud.
One officer tries to lean down to attend to him but another officer pulls him up. The police keep walking.
"He's bleeding!" someone shouts as blood pools around Gugino's head.
The Buffalo Police Department had initially claimed Gugino "tripped and fell." After the WBFO video was posted online, police commissioner Byron Lockwood announced the two officers would be suspended without pay pending an investigation.
Gugino remains hospitalized in serious condition, Flynn said Saturday, calling him a "harmless 75-year-old man."
Friends told Spectrum News that Gugino was a regular at local protests, ranging from opposing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to demanding justice for Tamir Rice. The WNY Peace Center shared a photo of him on their Facebook page, confirming him as "a longtime peace activist who does a lot of important work with the Plowshares, Catholic Workers, and many other local community organizations."
"When he was trying to approach the cops there, I saw him as being, ‘Hey I want a conversation.’ That's Martin. He likes to talk to people on the streets," his friend Palia Prasasouk told Spectrum.
The virtual arraignment at Buffalo City Court drew a crowd that included members of the Buffalo Police Union.
At one point a man in a Rescue 1 BFD T-shirt held a massive umbrella in front of news cameras, blocking the view, according to WIVB.
As the officers exited the court, the crowd in front of the building cheered and clapped.
On Friday, the entire 57-member Buffalo Police Department Emergency Response Team resigned from that unit (but not from the police force) as a show of solidarity for McCabe and Torgalski. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” John Evans, PBA president, said in a statement.
In a news briefing after the arraignment, DA Flynn said the officers "crossed a line." He also said the officers were arraigned Saturday because of the mass resignation of the emergency police unit Friday.
They quit on Friday and "weren't going to come to protect the city of Buffalo" if the arraignments happened that evening, Flynn said. "I didn't want to pour gasoline on a fire."
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told WBEN radio Friday that he was informed Gugino was an agitator out after the city's curfew. "He was trying to spark up the crowd of people. Those people were there into the darkness. Our concern is when it gets dark, there is a potential for violence," Brown told the station. "There has been vandalism, there have been fires set, there have been stores broken into and looted. According to what was reported to me, that individual was a key and major instigator of people engaging in those activities." Brown had called for the suspension of the officers involved.
"What we saw was horrendous and disgusting and I believe illegal," said Governor Andrew Cuomo of the incident at his Saturday briefing, and praised Buffalo for moving quickly on the investigation, unlike Minneapolis where the four police officers were not immediately charged in the killing of George Floyd. "I think what the mayor did and what the district attorney did was the right thing."
Meanwhile, Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw released a statement in support of the Buffalo Police Department that said in part: “I stand strong behind these Buffalo Police officers and all members of law enforcement. Cops are under attack from agitating, extremist radicals that crave anarchy and chaos. Enough is enough. It’s time for us to take back our neighborhoods. It’s time to take back our way of life and our great nation.”
Tagged
buffalo
black lives matter
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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