A New York City police officer who was seen in a video pushing a woman to the ground at a George Floyd protest in Brooklyn on May 29 is facing multiple charges, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.
Vincent D'Andraia has been charged with assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing in the incident the city's police commissioner Dermot Shea has described as "troubling" and "disturbing."
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch in a statement Tuesday took aim at Mayor Bill de Blasio and department leadership.
"Once again, Mayor de Blasio and the NYPD brass are sacrificing cops to save their own skin," Lynch said. "They created the failed strategy for managing these demonstrations."
Lynch added: "They sent police officers out to do the job with no support and no clear plan. They should be the ones facing this mob-rule justice. We will say it again: New York City police officers have been abandoned by our leadership. We are utterly alone in our efforts to protect our city."
D'Andraia, 28, who lives in Holbrook on Long Island, could not immediately be reached for comment. He reports to to the 73rd Precinct, which includes Brownsville, a neighborhood in Brooklyn.
In a statement released late Friday, the police commissioner said that D'Andraia and another officer involved in a separate incident on May 30 had been suspended without pay.
D'Andraia's supervisor would also be transferred as a result of the incident, the commissioner said. Shea did not identify the officers.
Both suspensions came after the department's Internal Affairs Bureau concluded investigations into the incidents. Shea said the cases have been referred to a Department Advocate for disciplinary action.
"While the investigations have to play out, based on the severity of what we saw, it is appropriate and necessary to assure the public that there will be transparency during the disciplinary process," Shea said in his statement Friday.
He added that the incidents "run counter to the principles of NYPD training, as well as our mission of public safety."
The woman who was filmed while shoved, Dounya Zayer, has said she was standing in the street protesting peacefully on the night of May 29 when, without provocation, an officer walked up to her and told her to get out of the street. She said she asked why and that the officer then shoved her and called her a "stupid f------ b----."
Video of the encounter quickly spread across social media.
At a news conference last Tuesday outside the Barclays Center near where the incident occurred, Zayer said she was shoved with such force that she flew out of her shoes, slamming her head onto the street.
"I am in pain. My head hurts. I haven't slept in three days. And I cannot stop throwing up," she said. "But I am trying everything in my power to hold myself together for the people who are depending on me to speak on the situation."
Zayer said she was hospitalized and treated for a seizure and a concussion.
"He did this in front of his lieutenant and multiple other officers who watched me hit the ground. One even looked back to make sure I was still on the ground, and they continued walking," Zayer said. "Not one officer tried to help me, and not one officer tried to stop the officer who assaulted me."
Shea apologized at a news conference on Thursday for any instances of misconduct his officers had committed. He also said anti-police rhetoric has raised tension in the city.
"It encourages fighting the police during lawful arrests, and while all this is going on, we hear silence from so many of our elected officials, it's sickening," Shea said.
