NYPD officer is arrested on strangulation charges after video footage 'showed him using banned chokehold on black man during arrest'
A New York City police officer who was suspended after putting a black man in what authorities said was a banned chokehold now faces criminal charges.
NYPD officer David Afanador was arrested Thursday on charges of strangulation and attempted strangulation regarding an altercation last weekend on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk.
New York's recently-passed Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, named after the Staten Island man killed by a police chokehold in 2014, makes use of the banned move a felony in the state - punishable up to 15 years.
Afanador, 39, was expected to be arraigned at a criminal court in Queens. He remains suspended without pay.
The incident occurred after police received a call at 9am on Sunday, June 21, to reports of a man acting erratically on the boardwalk at 133th Street.
The man, who gave his name to officers as Ricky Bellevue, was standing with two white men who were filming the officers as they approached, jeering at them and circling them.
The NYPD says officer David Afanador (pictured in 2014) was arrested Thursday on charges of strangulation and attempted strangulation over an altercation last weekend on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk
The man, who gave his name as Ricky Bellevue, 35, from Rockaway, was held in a chokehold. The footage showed that Afanador crooked his arm around Bellevue´s neck for several seconds as he lay face down on the boardwalk.
When Bellevue, 35 - who is black - gets close to the officers, body camera footage shows him being thrown down to the floor.
The footage showed that Afanador crooked his arm around Bellevue´s neck for several seconds as he lay face down on the boardwalk.
As four uniformed officers restrained Bellevue, a a bystander yelled: 'Yo, he's choking 'em, let 'em go!'
Bellevue, who lives with his twin brother in Rockaway, is overheard telling the officers he is bipolar and asthmatic.
'This is what you do to a black man on Father's Day?' he says after he is led to an ambulance.
'This is what you do in America? I'm born in America. You're not here to help us. You're here to kill us. I always get beat up by the police.'
Standing by an EMT vehicle, he complains about his neck. 'Sir, there is no pressure on your neck,' one officer is overheard saying.
'What changed everything is when he grabbed something and squared up and was gonna hit my officer standing over there,' said an officer in the body camera footage.
That officer said they knew Bellevue and the two other men he was with were drunk and that Bellevue had a history of mental illness, but they were worried he would hurt someone.
Body camera footage released by the department shows that the maneuver came after Bellevue and two other men hurled insults at the officers for at least 10 minutes.
But Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday that Afanador was suspended because 'the hand around the neck is the hand around the neck.'
Bellevue’s lawyer said his client was hospitalized with a cut on his head, but has since been released.
'The arrest... is the first step in getting justice,' said attorney Bellevue's attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, to the Daily News. 'The next step is for the officer to be convicted and sentenced to jail.'
Two white men are seen in bodycam footage jeering at the police as Bellevue approaches the officers - who claim he was threatening them
A tussle ensues and Bellevue is wrestled to the floor and handcuffed
Bellevue is then helped to his feet and, in handcuffs, led towards an awaiting ambulance
In a statement responding to the incident, Shea said: 'Accountability in policing is essential. After a swift investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau, a police officer involved in a disturbing apparent chokehold incident in Queens has been suspended without pay.
'While a full investigation is still underway, there is no question in my mind that this immediate action is necessary. We are committed to transparency as this process continues.'
Shea announced the suspension only hours after video of the incident was posted on social media. Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the department's quick response.
'The public need to see when something goes wrong, there are consequences,' the mayor said.
Court records show four previous instances in which Afanador has been sued for excessive force and the city paid out a settlement, including a $37,500 settlement in 2009 and two settlements for unknown amounts in 2012 and 2015, CBS News reported.
He was also arrested in 2014 from allegations he pistol-whipped a teenage suspect so severely during a marijuana arrest that he broke two of his teeth. He was one of two cops arrested.
Afanador was later acquitted and the case was settled in 2016 for an undisclosed amount.
The officer was also arrested in 2014 from allegations he pistol-whipped a teenage suspect so severely during a marijuana arrest that he broke two of his teeth. He was one of two cops arrested (incident shown above)
A search of court records shows four previous instances in which Afanador has been sued for excessive force and the city paid out a settlement
In the latest incident, Afanador's lawyer said his client was facing a rush to judgment in the wake of protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and public pressure to hold police officers accountable for alleged misconduct.
Floyd was killed a month to the day before Afanador's arrest.
'It's become fashionable for prosecutors to make summary arrests of police officers without a full and thorough investigation,' defense attorney Stephen Worth said. 'The concept of due process seems to go out the window.'
Chokeholds have been banned by the New York Police Department for years. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed a measure outlawing them statewide.
'The ink from the pen Gov. Cuomo used to sign this legislation was barely dry before this officer allegedly employed the very tactic the new law was designed to prohibit,' District Attorney Melinda Katz said of Afanador
There was no immediate comment from the officer's union.
NYPD officer is arrested on strangulation charges after video footage 'showed him using banned chokehold on black man during arrest'
![NYPD officer is arrested on strangulation charges after video footage 'showed him using banned chokehold on black man during arrest']()
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