Right around the time of Eric Garner's death at the hands of a NYPD officer who placed him in a chokehold footage surfaced of a NYPD police officer stomping on a restrained suspect's head. This was July 2014, months before Akai Gurley was fatally shot by a NYPD officer who was recently sentenced to probation instead of jail time. Gawkerreports the officer in the head-stomping incident was found guilty of assault today.
The New York Postreports the officer,Joel Edouard, arrested 20-year-old (at the time) Jahmi-El Cuffee for allegedly drinking and smoking weed in public. Video of the arrest shows Edouard and one other police officer restraining Cuffee in Bed-stuy, Brooklyn. Before Edouard is seen stomping on Cuffee's head he pulls out his gun, alarming the crowd that's watching the arrest, and points it at Cuffee who is now on the ground. It's then at the 1:40 mark in the video that he stomps on Cuffee's head to the crowd's horror. Gawkerreports Edouard was placed on "modified duty" after the video went public and then he was charged.
According toGawker, citing the NYP, Edouard's attorneys said photos meant to show Cuffee's injuries after the arrest had been "photoshopped" to create injuries.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Alan Marrus didn't agree and found Edouard guilty of assault saying, "He let down his fellow officers by losing his composure. He gratuitously stomped on the head of Jahmi-El Cuffee...Prosecutors proved there was physical injury," reports the NYP.
The NYPsays Edouard could face one year in prison.
