Cops Who Tased Toddler-Holding Migrant Did Nothing Wrong, Adams Says

NEW YORK CITY — Cops who punched and used a stun gun on a migrant man clutching a toddler did nothing wrong, said Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams defended the NYPD officers' actions after the New York Times published a video that revealed a violent melee inside a Queens shelter last week.

The click of a stun gun can be heard in the video as cops push a man — identified as a 47-year-old Venezuelan migrant — against an elevator door as he holds his 1-year-old child, the Times reported. Officers swarm the man, punch him and pin him to the ground after they pull the boy from him, the video shows.

Adams said an unspecified "review" found the officers acted appropriately in an inherently dangerous domestic violence incident involving a drunken man.

"This person was under the influence of alcohol, holding a child," he said Tuesday.

"They wanted to get that child out of that gentleman's hand. After warning him several times, asking him to turn over the child several times, he refused to. He was violent, he was volatile, they had to take that necessary action."

The Mayor also cited that the incident was captured on the officer's body-worn cameras, but any footage from those cameras has yet to be released.

By comparison, NYPD body-worn camera footage of City Council Member Yusef Salaam's traffic stop last month was released within 24 hours of the incident.

Adams' assessment wasn't shared by many people heard on the video, as well as an account by the man himself in the Times report.

Bystanders could be heard speaking in Spanish on the video shouting, "This is abuse," as the cops pin the man against a table.

The man told the Times he had not been drinking, and that the dispute began when a shelter employee struck him in the face as he struggled to communicate in English.

He and his wife, who is seen in the video getting between police and him, were both arrested, the Times reported.

Their 1-year-old son and two other young children were taken by child welfare officials, according to the report.