New York Daily News
May 30, 2020 9:53 AM
Dounya Zayer is removed in an ambulance near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Friday, May 29, 2020 during a protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd.(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
Videos on social media show an NYPD officer violently shoving a young woman to the ground in Brooklyn Friday night while trying to control the swelling crowd of protesters angry over the death of George Floyd.
Dounya Zayer identified herself as the woman in the videos that were shared on Twitter and racked up millions of views.
In one clip taken by a reporter, Zayer appears to be facing the officer before he forcefully pushes her to the curb.
In another video posted by Zayer, the officer asks her to “get out of the street.” Zayer asks, “Why?” and the cop swipes at her before the clip ends.
“This is the officer. He threw my phone before throwing me. As you can see I was already backing up. All I asked was why,” Zayer wrote in a caption to the video.
It’s not immediately clear what interaction Zayer had with the police officer prior to the video.
Police sources said the cop in the video is a member of the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville. The shove happened right next to his commanding officer, sources said.
The NYPD was reviewing the incident.
Zayer later posted several videos from her hospital bed, claiming to have suffered from a seizure and a concussion.
“I wasn’t aggressive toward the police officer. Even if I was he should have had the self restraint to not hurt the people’s he’s supposed to be protecting,” she said.
“They should apologize because they’re wearing blue. They’re part of the gang that killed George Floyd,” she said.
On Saturday, Mayor de Blasio said City Hall would launch an independent investigation into Zayer’s video and any other clips that show police getting aggressive with protesters on Friday.
“Anytime you see a protester arbitrarily thrown to the ground is unacceptable and there needs to be consequences,” de Blasio said during a Saturday press conference with Police Commissioner Dermot Shea. “The NYPD has to do better. We cannot see a video like that.”
“Each one of those incidents corrodes the trust between the police and the community,” de Blasio said.
Shea said he found the video “disturbing.”
The Daily News Flash Newsletter
Weekdays
Catch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon.
“We’re already taking a look at the actions of our officers,” he said. “We have an incredibly high standard that we look at and we will see what we can do better.”
About 200 protesters were taken into custody Friday night in both lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, police said. Several cops were injured as the protests turned violent, but none of the officers were seriously hurt.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson called for the Brooklyn cop to be charged.
Zayer was one of several hundred protesters who rallied Friday outside the Barclays Center before marching to the 88th Precinct station house, which some protesters tried to storm.
At least two police vehicles were torched as throngs of protesters rallied in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. Four cops were nearly killed when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at an occupied a police van.
