An emotionally disturbed man, who was handcuffed and on a stretcher, was beaten by four New York City police officers who only stopped hitting the man when EMTs with the Fire Department of New York broke it up, the New York Daily News reports. Two Fire Department EMTs reported the officers to authorities after the July 20 incident.
According to the Daily News, police officers punched the patient multiple times in the face. The incident began when the man became aggressive with one officer and was hit by that officer, according to the paper. He then began cursing and spit on the officer, and that is when three other officers began beating him, the newspaper reported.
"Three cops began to punch the patient in the face, EMS [had] to get in the middle of it to intervene. Pt's. wounds and injuries cleaned in the [ambulance]," the FDNY reports said, as reported by the Daily News.
New York City police have come under intense scrutiny because of claims of brutality. The death of Eric Garner, a man apparently put in a choke hold by police, has been ruled a homicide. The beating of Rosan Miller, a pregnant woman, during an argument over a sidewalk grill has been widely publicized. Most recently, NYPD officers have come under fire for dragging a naked mother out of her East New York, Brooklyn, apartment during a domestic-disturbance call.
Read more at the New York Daily News.