A Bronx man is planning to sue New York City after video obtained by the New York Daily News seemingly corroborates his version of what happened the night of his arrest on April 1.
According to the Daily News report, 21-year-old Raymond Romero claims that New York City police officers mistook him for a robber and subsequently broke his little finger and used a stun gun on him multiple times.
Romero told the Daily News that he has since been kept at the Brooklyn House of Detention on false charges. He alleges that the officers lied about what happened the night of his arrest when they said that he refused to take his hands out of his pockets and struggled with officers.
“This is wrong!” Romero told the news site at the detention center.
In court papers, an officer from the 41st Precinct, Jose Reyes, claims that the young man matched their description of a robber and that Romero was standing around with his hands inside his pockets, so Reyes asked the young man to remove them.
Reyes accused Romero of becoming combative and yelling that he wasn’t “f—king taking my hands out of my pocket.”
The video the Daily News obtained seems to supports Romero’s version. In it, he is seen wearing a blue hoodie and smoking a cigarette outside a barbershop. A police cruiser pulls up, and the officers get out and start confronting the young man. Romero’s hands can be seen in the video.
One officer, who police confirmed was Reyes, grabs Romero by the neck of his hoodie, pushing him forcefully into the front of a store. According to the Daily News, Romero appears to be trying to get Reyes off him when other cops joins in, taking him down to the ground, before cuffing Romero and taking him away.
“The police officer clearly lied. Let the officer explain that,” Romero’s lawyer, Alexander Sanchez, told the Daily News.
Romero’s allegations against the officers do not stop there, however. He says that officers tasered him several times while he was being held at the precinct and beat him up after he allegedly spit on one of them.
At his court appearance, Romero was denied bail because he violated the terms of a 2013 plea bargain, which mandated that he not be arrested again.
Read more at the New York Daily News.