Cop Accused Of Punching Suspect In Harlem Is Charged With Assault

HARLEM, NY — An NYPD sergeant was indicted Thursday on charges that he beat two handcuffed suspects in separate incidents, including a 2019 assault in Harlem.

Phillip Wong, 37, faces charges of assault and attempted assault, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced. He pleaded not guilty and has been suspended without pay, the NYPD said.

The Harlem incident happened in Oct. 4, 2019, when Wong, a 15-year NYPD veteran, was assigned to a transit patrol based at the 145th Street–St. Nicholas Avenue subway station.

Officers brought in a 48-year-old man, along with two other suspects, to be processed after they were arrested. As Wong and two other officers escorted the handcuffed man to a holding cell, the man kicked the cell door and started spitting at the officers, prosecutors said.

Wong then pushed his way past the other two cops, opened the cell door and punched the man in the face, prosecutors said. The man had to be hospitalized for cuts above his right eye, which needed stitches.

The incident had been reported by Wong's supervisor to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, the New York Times reported Thursday.

The other incident happened months later, in April 2020, when Wong allegedly knelt on a man's back while arresting him on the Upper West Side after the man used anti-Asian slurs.

"When NYPD officers head into the field each day to face unknown and potentially life-threatening situations, they do one of the most difficult jobs in the world," DA Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement. "But having sworn an oath to protect and serve their communities, those difficult jobs need to be carried out with the utmost integrity and professionalism, especially by officers in leadership."

"As alleged, this Sergeant grossly violated his training – and the law – during the arrests of these two individuals, whose conduct did not justify these violent responses," Vance added.

NYPD guidelines bar officers from using force against people who are handcuffed, except to prevent someone from resisting or to prevent injury or escape.