A Bronx man put an NYPD officer in a headlock while a crowd cheered him on, video of the wild incident shows. (Twitter)
A Bronx man put an NYPD officer in a headlock while a crowd cheered him on, video of the wild incident shows.
A pair of officers were trying to arrest a man on Grand Concourse and
Morris Ave. July 1 when a crowd gathered around them and started
shouting.
One man in the group filmed the encounter on his cellphone while
cursing and taunting the officers, telling one, “This n----- right here,
he act gangster cause he got a badge and a gun.”
Seconds later, the officer rushes at a man in the crowd — identified by
police sources as Wisnel Manzueta, 29 — but Manzueta gets the better of
the cop and puts him in a headlock, dragging the officer to the ground.
“They smoked you, p----! You just got smoked, p----!” the man taking the video yells, as the headlock suspect runs off.
The cop needed two staples to close cuts to his head, a police source said.
Manzueta surrendered alongside his lawyer at the 46th Precinct stationhouse a week later, authorities say.
Though he was initially charged by police, Bronx District Attorney
Darcel Clark’s office deferred prosecution, meaning Manzueta remains
free as prosecutors continue to investigate the case and weigh whether
charges are merited.
“The NYPD was disappointed that the individual was not charged
initially,” said Sgt. Jessica McRorie, an NYPD spokeswoman. “The
violence against the police officer speaks for itself. We are now in
discussions with the District Attorney regarding the case.”
That was a sore spot for police sources, who pointed out he remains
free while state cops can now be arrested for placing a suspect in a
chokehold under a new state law.
“Our city needs to wake up to the fact that our leaders have
surrendered the streets to chaos,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the
Police Benevolent Association, the NYPD’s largest union. “This was a
near-riot situation where a cop is fighting for his life, and somehow
his attacker was allowed to go free.”
Video shows Wisnel Manzueta getting the better of the cop and puts him in a headlock, dragging the officer to the ground. (Twitter)
Lynch said he expects Clark to bring “real charges” against the man.
“If that doesn’t happen, we should just run up the white flag and admit
that the criminals are in charge,” he added.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association which first tweeted out the video
on Saturday, and its president, Ed Mullins, were more blunt on social
media.
“COREY JOHNSON your STUPID law is about to be signed by NYC STUPID
Mayor it’s time you both take your community input & grab these
perps yourself,” the SBA posted on Twitter, targeting Council Speaker
Corey Johnson and Mayor de Blasio.
The City Council last month passed a bill that criminalizes chokeholds
and other methods of restraint by police officers and sets up a string
of police reform measures. Though it passed with a veto-proof majority,
Mayor de Blasio said he’d sign it into law.
De Blasio responded to the video in a Twitter post Sunday night: “We
have a lot to do to heal the relationship between police and the
community. That starts with standing together and advancing reforms, but
it also means we cannot accept violence against our police officers.”
Wisnel Manzueta (far left), a Bronx man, put an NYPD officer (far
right) in a headlock while a crowd cheered him on, video of the wild
incident shows. (Twitter)
The man initially arrested in the video, Franklin Adrian, 31, was
charged with resisting arrest and obstructing government administration.
He received a desk appearance ticket and was released.
Police said he was parked illegally in front of a hydrant and the
officers were trying to give him a parking ticket. He repeatedly refused
to move his car, leading the officers to arrest him, an NYPD spokesman
said.
His father, Francisco Adrian, said the officers roughed him up during the arrest.
“They broke his face and everything, hitting him for a ticket that
they’d already given him. They threw him onto the floor,” the elder
Adrian said. “When I got there, they were already taking him to the
police precinct, without a motive. They didn’t have to do that . . .
They’d already given him the ticket.”
Adrian is a father of five, his dad said. “I want people to take notice
of this. He couldn’t breathe, just like the black guy they killed the
other day,” the elder Adrian said, referring to the death of George
Floyd.
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