The video taken by a reporter from local public radio station WBFO and posted on its website and Twitter account shows the white-haired man approaching a line of officers in riot gear.
New York police shove man
violently as curfew begins
NY police shove man violently as curfew begins
New
York: Two Buffalo, New York,
police officers were suspended without pay on Thursday after a video showed
them shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground, as protests over the police
killing of George Floyd continued into their tenth night.
The video
taken by a reporter from local public radio station WBFO and posted on its
website and Twitter account shows the white-haired man approaching a line of
officers in riot gear.
One
officer pushes him with a baton and a second one with his hand. The sound of a
crack is heard and then blood trickles from the man's head.
The man,
who is white, is not identified.
"I
was deeply disturbed by the video," Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said in a
statement.
"After
days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership
and members of the community, tonight's event is disheartening."
The
incident drew widespread condemnation on social media as protesters returned to
the streets of several US cities to demonstrate against police brutality.
Mr Floyd
died in Minneapolis on May 25 after former police officer Derek Chauvin put his
knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
The video
in Buffalo shows the majority of the officers march past after the man falls,
though the officer who pushed him with a baton starts to lean over him before
he is motioned away by another officer.
Someone
is heard calling for a medic.
The radio
station reported that two medics came forward and helped the man into an
ambulance.
Police
later said that a man was injured after tripping and falling, the radio station
said. But after viewing the video, Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood
ordered an investigation and suspended the two officers, Mr Brown said.
The
75-year-old victim was in stable but serious condition at Erie County Medical
Center Hospital in Buffalo, Mr Brown said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kavart Media staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)