May 30, 2020 | 10:40pm | Updated May 31, 2020 | 2:20am
An NYPD SUV was caught on camera ramming into a group of protesters in Brooklyn Saturday during the city’s third night of chaotic demonstrations over the death of George Floyd.
The shocking clip opens with the NYPD SUV idling in the middle of Flatbush Avenue near St. Marks Avenue in Prospect Heights, with dozens of protesters pressing a metal barricade up against the vehicle as they threw bottles and traffic cones its way.
Eventually, a second NYPD SUV pulls up alongside the first vehicle and slowly drives around the barricade and toward protesters.
Seconds later, the officer behind the wheel of the first SUV rams into the barricade, knocking others to the ground among shrieks of horror.
The incident occurred shortly before 8 p.m., according to Twitter user Pierre Garapon, who posted the clip.
An NYPD spokesperson did not immediately comment on the clip or say if there were injuries caused by the incident.
Mayor de Blasio, speaking late Saturday on NY1, called the incident “troubling,” but added, “if those protesters had just gotten out of the way and not created an attempt to surround that vehicle, we would not be talking about this situation.”
The chilling clip caught the eye of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Queens-Bronx Democrat tweeted her outrage, calling for the cops behind the wheel to be “brought to justice.”
NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could‘ve killed them, &we don’t know how many they injured.
NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings.@NYCMayor these officers need to be brought to justice, not dismissed w/“internal reviews.” https://t.co/oIaBShSC1S
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2020
Early Sunday, AOC tweeted again about the incident, this time to condemn the mayor for “making excuses for the NYPD running SUVs into crowds.”
Saturday brought hundreds more out to the streets of New York to protest the killing of Floyd, the Minneapolis black man who died after a cop knelt on his neck during an arrest.
Protesters have set several police vehicles on fire and damaged many others during demonstrations in Brooklyn and Queens over the last two days. Police have relied on mace and batons in their attempts to quell riots.
The footage came just hours after Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned a “disturbing” series of filmed clashes with protesters Friday night, ordering state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate police conduct.
An NYPD car rams into a crowd of protesters.
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