Two cops from the 52nd Precinct have been suspended without pay after a video surfaced of them pounding and kicking a handcuffed suspect after a failed drug bust near the corner of Davidson Avenue and Fordham Road in early January.
After the video was made public by the suspect’s defense attorney on Jan. 20, the two officers, identified as William Green and John Cicero, were almost immediately suspended.
NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and 52nd Precinct Commander John D’Adamo both denounced police officers’ actions and said the Internal Affairs bureau was investigating the incident.
“We simply are never going to tolerate something like that,” Kelly told reporters during a press conference. “We’re going to take swift and firm action when we see activities of that nature.”
At a precinct council meeting a week later, D’Adamo addressed the situation with local residents and struck a similar tone. “It was an unfortunate incident,” he said, “but this type of behavior will not be tolerated.”
The incident unfolded at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday. Detectives on a drug raid chased at least one suspect into the courtyard at 2473 Davidson Ave.
According to the NYPD, three plainclothes detectives chased the suspect into the courtyard where they encountered several other men. Someone released a pit bull and one of the detectives fired one shot that hit the pit bull in his paw. Bullet fragments injured two of the detectives. Both were treated for their wounds and released.
The video, shot by a resident from a nearby apartment building, was made public by lawyer Jeff Emdin, whose firm is representing six of the eight men arrested that night. Emdin gave the video to prosecutors who handed it over to Internal Affairs.
According to Emdin, charges against one suspect were dropped at arraignment, charges against a second individual were dropped when a grand jury refused to indict, and two other cases are pending. The others were issued double parking summonses after being held in police custody for more than five hours.
The video, which clearly shows a uniformed officer beating a handcuffed suspect while he is lying face down on the sidewalk, also shows two sergeants who were in view of the beating, but did nothing. The two sergeants were stripped of their guns and badges and placed on modified desk duty pending the outcome of the investigations.
“I get these [police brutality] cases all the time,” Emdin said, “but it’s not newsworthy unless there is a video.”

