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[UPDATE] Videos Appear To Show NYPD Seizing Young Boy For Selling Candy In The Subway
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 12, 2020
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Courtesy Shaquan Jenkins
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 12, 2020
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[SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE] Police officers in a Harlem subway station on Friday night were seen forcibly dragging a child away from a woman claiming to be his mother, apparently for the offense of selling snacks on the train.
Witness Shaquan Jenkins tells Gothamist he was on his way home to Jersey City when he saw police remove the unidentified boy from the train at the 145th Street station.
Jenkins said he had seen the boy moving through the subway car selling candy shortly before police officers grabbed him. He says a woman who identified herself as the boy's mother repeatedly told police "that's my son."
One video shared by Jenkins on Twitter showed the distraught boy struggling with police officers as subway riders angrily object.
"We're gonna let your son go when you speak to me," one officer, who is not wearing a protective mask, tells the woman who identified herself as the boy's mother.
"I'm speaking to you now!" the woman replies.
"You're not speaking to me," the officer says to the woman.
Jenkins said that bystanders were trying to help by gathering the candy the boy had dropped on the subway platform, but that police threw it in the garbage.
"They looked like kidnappers, like they were trying to kidnap the little boy," Jenkins said. "I felt outraged. It’s a little boy. Can’t they talk to him on his level and say it’s not safe, go home? Why did they need three officers to take him to the precinct?"
A second video shows more officers joining the others to bring the boy up the subway stairs. Some of the officers can be seen wearing protective surgical masks, others are not.
"He’s crying, as they try to close the train doors, they called down extra police officers," Jenkins said. "It looked like they trampled him in a pile."
The NYPD Transit Police maintains a precinct in the station, and Jenkins says he followed the officers as they brought the boy there.
It's unclear if the boy was further detained in the precinct. The NYPD did not immediately respond to inquiries about the incident.
“The video is upsetting and we have reached out to the NYPD for more information," said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan in a statement.
The NYPD has been criticized for cracking down on food vendors in the subway, and with the spread of COVID-19, some have further questioned the department's enforcement priorities during a pandemic.
On Sunday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio directed all city workers who interact with the public to wear face coverings to protect themselves and others from the novel coronavirus. The directive goes into effect on Monday.
As of Saturday, over 18 percent of the NYPD’s uniformed workforce was out sick with coronavirus, and 2,318 uniformed members and 471 civilian members have tested positive. 19 NYPD officers have died from COVID-19, and another 16 civilian NYPD employees have died from the virus, the NY Post reports.
UPDATE Monday, April 13th: An NYPD spokesperson sent the following statement confirming that police removed the unidentified child from the train. According to a statement from Detective Denise Moroney, the train's conductor flagged down police in the 145th Street subway station and told officers "they observed a male child of about eight years of age by himself exiting and re-entering train cars over the course of several stations. Officers canvassed the train and located the child. The child informed them he was with adults who were located somewhere else on the train. The officers conducted a canvass and several trains cars away from where the boy was found, police located two adults, a 36 year-old female and 24 year-old male, accompanied by a four year-old male child. Both adults, which were the child’s mother and stepfather, were uncooperative and threatened the police to release the boy to them. Police escorted the two children and the two adults to Transit District to conduct a further investigation. After arriving at the Transit District and conferring with ACS the child was released to his mother and the adult male was issued a C-Summons for disorderly conduct."
Tagged
COVID-19
coronavirus
nypd
police
subway vendors
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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