Bronx resident Marilyn Taylor is suing the NYPD for pepper spraying her, her husband and their three young children inside of a subway station in Brooklyn. According to the lawsuit, three officers "needlessly and without warning pepper-sprayed a mother, father, and their three small children" as they made their way through the station last summer.
The family was stopped by the L platform at Atlantic Avenue after police accused Taylor of skipping fare when she went through the service entry with her stroller. The children were caught in the mist of pepper spray, forcing them to "scream and cry in fear and pain." The children are ages 2, 4 and five months old, and the pepper spray caused the two-year-old to vomit.Taylor's husband, Dehaven McClain, was also struck by the lethal spray.
Taylor claims that she was pushed down the stairs as she was being dragged out of the train station in handcuffs, leading to injuries on her wrists and lower back. Though she agreed to an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," the lawsuit says that officers continued to harass her family whenever they were at the Atlantic Avenue station. Eventually, they had to avoid it altogether.
Taylor says her children have been "severely traumatized" by the experience, and both she and her husband have suffered from lingering eye injuries. She's seeking unspecified damages.
[via Gothamist]
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