NYPD Suspends Cop After Chokehold Caught On Video In Queens

FAR ROCKAWAY, QUEENS — The NYPD suspended a police officer caught on video putting a Black man into an apparent chokehold during an arrest Sunday on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk.

The officer, one of four cops recorded piling on top of the man and arresting him, was suspended without pay just hours after a bystander's video of the encounter went viral on Twitter.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday called the video "absolutely disturbing to watch and unacceptable," yet praised the NYPD for immediately investigating and disciplining an officer involved in the arrest.

"This is the fastest I've ever seen the NYPD act in an instance like this," he told reporters.

The NYPD did not name the suspended officer, but the video shows police officer David Afanador pressing his arm into the man's neck while the other three officers pin the man to the ground.

"Accountability in policing is essential," Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a statement Sunday. "After a swift investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau, a police officer involved in a disturbing apparent chokehold incident in Queens has been suspended without pay."

The man who was arrested, 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue, has a history of mental illness and was taken to a Queens hospital for treatment Sunday, his defense attorney told The New York Times.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Monday that she will not prosecute Bellevue, and a spokesperson said the case has been sealed.

(Warning: This video contains explicit language.)

Officer Afanador, Badge # 31730 of the @NYPD100Pct @NYPDnews at Far Rockaway Beach performing an Illegal modern day lynching chokehold on a Black Man until he was unconscious. I demand his immediate firing & criminal charges for breaking the city & state ban. #DefundThePolice pic.twitter.com/wtAmYWxIbE
— Anthony Beckford (City Council Candidate) (@Vote4Beckford) June 21, 2020

Bellevue was celebrating his 35th birthday when he and two other men started taunting a group of police officers near Beach 113th Street, according to the Daily News.

Bellevue then appears to reach into a trash can and the police officer wearing the body camera rushes forward and grabs him, the videoe shows.

While the NYPD swiftly released more than 30 minutes of body camera footage from the encounter, it was the bystander's cellphone video that showed the apparent chokehold and drew the public's attention.

"Stop choking him, bro!" a bystander shouted as Afanador presses his arm into Bellevue's neck for several seconds. "He's choking him. Let him go!"

Another officer then tapped Afanador on the back and appears to pull him off Bellevue.

Afanador has been the subject of eight Civilian Complaint Review Board investigations since he joined the NYPD in 2005, the New York Daily News reported.

He was also charged with assault in 2014 for hitting a Brooklyn teenager in the face with his gun, but a judge found him not guilty after he claimed it was unintentional.

The encounter in Far Rockaway happened against the backdrop of weeks of police brutality protests across New York City and the country, sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Last week the New York City Council passed a bill criminalizing chokeholds — which are already banned by the NYPD — as well as instances when police place their knee on a person's neck, as was the case in Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

The City Council bill builds on a state law enacted days earlier that introduces criminal penalties for cases when a law enforcement officer uses a chokehold or a similar restraint that causes serious physical injury or death. It excluded an exception proposed by de Blasio's administration that would allow police officers to rest their weight on detainees' backs or chests.

Asked Monday by New York Attorney General Tish James why NYPD officers are still using chokeholds, the police commissioner replied that "there is no magic bullet."

"We have a large amount of people put back on the street without safety nets," Shea said.