Prosecutors: 2 Buffalo officers charged with assault for pushing 75-year-old protester
BUFFALO, N.Y. - Two Buffalo police officers were charged with assault Saturday, prosecutors said, after a video showed them shoving a protester in recent demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Both pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault.
The officers had been suspended without pay Friday after a TV crew captured the confrontation the night before near the end of protests.
The footage shows a man identified as Martin Gugino approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they clear demonstrators from Niagara Square around the time of an 8 p.m. curfew.
Two officers push Gugino backward, and he hits his head on the pavement. Blood spills as officers walk past. One officer leans down to check on the injured man before another officer urges the colleague to keep walking.
Dozens of police officers stepped down from the department’s crowd control unit Friday, in response to their fellow officers’ suspensions.