Buffalo police officers pleaded not guilty to charges of pushing a 75-year-old man
Both were charged with one count of assault in the second instance and were released on their own confession without bail.
The officers – identified by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office as Aaron Torgalski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32 – they arranged a videoconference and had the same lawyer. The officers, who were on the emergency response team, are due to reappear in court on July 20th.
CNN is trying to reach Torgalski and McCabe for comment.
A video from Thursday’s demonstration shows two police officers pushing Martin Gugin back. He falls on the sidewalk, where his blood bleeds. Officers and others then pass by him, and some look at him as they pass.
Gugino was hospitalized with a head injury.
Police officers spoke Saturday morning, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn told a news conference after the statement.
Flynn said he was ready to charge police on Friday, but “did not want to pour gasoline on the fire” after revealing on Friday that 57 officers had resigned from the emergency team and that “they did not want to come last night to protect the city of Buffalo.” ”
Flynn was concerned about the safety of the city, protesters and officials on Friday night.
“I was generally worried about what could potentially happen if I did this yesterday afternoon and there wasn’t enough security center in the center,” he said, “so I decided to do it this morning.”
Asked how the officers were supposed to react to the 75-year-old protester, Flynn said, “You’re not cracking the skull on the concrete.” If a man was doing something illegal, he should have been arrested, Flynn said.
“You don’t take a bat and you don’t push, along with the officer next to you,” and you hit him and “you break his head,” Flynn said.
Flynn’s comments came after government Andrew Cuomo said officials should be fired on Friday and prosecutors should move “pretty fast but fast”.
“When I saw the video, I got sick to my stomach,” Cuomo said. “I would encourage the district attorney not to do what happened in Minneapolis, which even the delay itself caused problems. People don’t want ambiguity. They’re upset and they want answers.”
Mayor Byron Brown told Chris Cuomo on CNN Friday night that he was told emergency team officers were trained to move on.
“With them are medics, officers with first aid training,” he said. “The medics were right behind the first line unit that continued to move forward. Within seconds, the medics provided first aid.”
CNY’s Jay Croft contributed to this report.
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