NYPD Police Officers Accused of Shoving Brooklyn, New York Woman to the Ground in Her Own Home After Confusing Lollipop For Crack Pipe
A pair of high-ranking New York City police officers are facing allegations they viciously attacked a Brooklyn woman after mistaking a lollipop she was holding for a crack pipe.
The New York Daily News reports the incident took place in April of 2013 when Det. Sekou Bourne and Sgt. Afzal Ali stormed the East New York apartment of Malik Saunders and encountered his friend, Jarnale Henry, who was leaving to go grocery shopping.
During a police Civilian Complaint Review Board hearing held on Monday, Henry testified she retreated back into the apartment after spotting the officers "because they were scary-looking."
Henry maintains officers then forced their way into the apartment and knocked her to the floor, with one of officers jumping on top of her. She insists only later did they identify themselves as police.
"He pushed me down ... They knocked my lollipop to the ground. I fell on my leg, onto my whole right side," Henry later told the New York Post. She was never charged with a crime.
Bourne now faces unlawful frisk and search charges, and both men are charged with unlawful premise entry charges. Bourne alleges he was in the building as part of the regular sweeps the department conduct there for drug dealers and, when he came face-to-face with Henry, she asked, "What do you want?"
Bourne added, "that's when I identified myself as a police officer. She tripped and fell on her own. Then I got on top of her and began frisking her for my safety,"
Bourne reportedly has a history of complaints being filed against him. He was once accused of slugging defenseless teen Marcel Hamer in Clinton Hills and knocking him out cold after he erroneously thought the youth had marijuana. On video, someone can be heard pleading with the officer, "mister, it was just a cigarette."
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