NYPD officer suspended after video appears to show him punching teenager

Mayor Eric Adams, who is a former officer, said “I was not pleased with what I saw on the video.” 

Mayor Eric Adams in New York, on Nov. 28, 2022.Lev Radin / Sipa USA via AP

• An officer was suspended after videos appeared to show him punching a 14-year-old girl, the NYPD confirmed.
• The girl had intervened in a fight to protect her younger sister, she told CBS News.
• "I was disappointed in the NYPD. I'm a whole child. Why are you putting your hands on me?" she said.

By Phil Helsel

A New York City police officer has been suspended and an investigation was launched after video appeared to show the officer repeatedly punch a teenaged girl, the mayor said Wednesday.

“I was not pleased with what I saw on the video,” said Mayor Eric Adams, a former New York Police Department officer.

The incident occurred around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, when officers observed “a large fight involving multiple female juveniles," Julian Phillips, police deputy commissioner for public information, said in a statement.

A girl was being jumped and NYPD officers intervened, Adams said.

Video of the encounter was posted to Instagram, which is where the mayor said he first became aware of it.

The video appears to show an officer holding on to the back of a young person’s jacket and striking the person, who is bent over and occasionally swings their arm back at the officer. Other young people are seen trying to grab the person being punched and pull them away.

Police said as officers were detaining a person, a 14-year-old reached for the officer’s handcuffs and struck the officer in the head, and that officer struck her with his hand several times.

The police officer, who was suspended without pay, was not identified in the police statement. Police said he is a 14-year veteran of the department.

Adams said he has communicated with the chancellor of the city's Department of Education about the incident.

It happened off school grounds and the officers were assigned to a school dismissal post, police said.

An investigation is underway, Adams said, and investigators will use the officers’ body-worn cameras as well as the video posted to Instagram.

“The police commissioner swiftly suspended the officer that was involved and now the Internal Affairs Bureau is doing a thorough investigation to determine exactly what happened,” he said.

The 14-year-old was treated at a local hospital and released, police said.

The NYPD officers union, the Police Benevolent Association, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.