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NYPD officer has been arrested and charged with attempted aggravated strangulation after he was recorded using an apparentchokehold on a suspect on Sunday. - Footage from the incident shows officers piling on top of a suspect, who was later identified by The New York Times as 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue, before one officer — identified as David Afanador — wrapped his arm around Bellevue's neck.
- A lawyer for Bellevue told the Times that he lost consciousness during the incident.
- Afanador was previously charged with assault in 2014 following an arrest but was acquitted and allowed back on the force.
A New York City
NYPD officer David Afanador was suspended without pay from the force just hours after the incident in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens. After an investigation, he was charged.
Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz released a statement Thursday, reviewed by Insider, announcing charges against Afanador. She said the maneuver he used "is exactly the kind of police conduct that the NYPD has banned and our State Legislature criminalized."
If Afanador is convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
In footage of the incident — first seen through a video filmed by a bystander and later through body-camera footage released by the NYPD — four officers can be seen piling on top of a Black man, identified by The New York Times as 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue.
One of the officers, now identified as Afanador, can be seen wrapping his arm around Bellevue's neck.
Bellevue's lawyer, Lori Zeno, told the Times that her client lost consciousness during the incident, and was later treated at a hospital for swollen wrists and a scalp injury.
Chokeholds have been banned in New York City since 1993, but the move has still been used in recent years. In 2014 Eric Garner died after an officer put him in a chokehold.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently put new police accountability measures in place following the death of George Floyd, who died when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Cuomo's new measures also include a ban on chokeholds.
"The ink from the pen Gov. Cuomo used to sign this legislation was barely dry before this officer allegedly employed the very tactic the new law was designed to prohibit," Katz said in her statement. "Police officers are entrusted to serve and protect – and the conduct alleged here cannot be tolerated. This police officer is now a defendant and is accused of using a chokehold, a maneuver we know has been lethal. This Office has zero tolerance for police misconduct."
Afanador has a history of violent incidents
The incident that let to Afanador being charged happened around 8:45 a.m. on Sunday, as police were responding to reports that a man was yelling at beachgoers, according to the Washington Post.
Police body camera footage shows the minutes leading up to the incident, in which three men, including Bellevue, were taunting the officers.
Bellevue then walked toward police and asked "You scared?" after which officers suddenly wrestled him to the ground.
As one officer wrapped his arm around Bellevue's neck one bystander can be heard yelling "Stop choking him, Bro!" Another officer on the scene can be seen pulling on the officer's shirt and intervening.
A woman on the boardwalk who said she was a relative of Bellevue said he was mentally ill.
Bellevue was later handcuffed, and police said he was suspected of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstructing governmental administration, the Washington Post reported.
This isn't the first time Afanador has been charged over his alleged behavior during an arrest.
He was also arrested and charged with assault in 2014, when he was seen on video hitting a 16-year-old boy with his gun during a marijuana bust. Afanador and another officer involved were acquitted in the incident, according to the New York Post.
Afanador returned to the NYPD after his acquittal. But according to the Associated Press, in his 15 years with the department, he has been involved in eight incidents in which people complained to the city's Civilian Complaint Review. Complaints included use-of-force, refusing to seek medical treatment, and using discourteous language. The only complaints that led to charges were connected to the incident involving the teen.
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