Newly-released NYPD body camera videos show the altercation that led to a male officer punching a 19-year-old woman and sending her to the ground in Harlem.
In the footage, you can see more of the chaos that was going on during the arrest of 22-year-old Elvin James, who was wanted in connection with attempted murder. According to the NYPD, James was carrying a loaded semi-automatic weapon and reportedly reached for his belt.
In one of the angles, you can see Tamani Crum walking up to her boyfriend James, and then you quickly see her interaction with the officer before she was hit to the ground.
As we previously reported, the NYPD released a statement regarding the incident saying, “while police were effecting the arrest multiple individuals on scene interfered by physically assaulting numerous officers. One officer sustained a minor injury to the head.”
“He shouldn’t have never, never put his hands on her or any female, he’s wrong, he’s wrong,” Crum’s grandmother said. She joined the National Action Network on Wednesday to call out the officer’s actions and demand accountability.
“He cold knocked her out, he’s no better than the people whose knocking out people in the streets,” she said. Activists say the officer went too far and that he should be better trained to handle a situation like this one. “You mean to tell me a grown man more than twice her size in weight could not handle a 19-year-old female in a different manner?” said Crum’s attorney, Jaime Santana Jr.
“When did it become a tactic for crowd control to knock somebody else unconscious?” said Rev. Stephan Marshall with the National Action Network.
The Detectives Endowment Association says it’s easy to judge, but in the heat of the moment, officers are thinking about the safety of everyone around. “This could have been a travesty where members of the NYPD and civilians could have been shot by this individual, if he didn’t take the action, he took,” DiGiacomo said.