An elderly protester who was shoved to the ground by police officers in Buffalo, New York, sued the city on Monday after a grand jury dismissed assault charges in connection to the June incident.
Lawyers for 75-year-old Martin Gugino alleged that high-ranking officials and three uniformed officers “violated” his “constitutional rights” when they enacted a “week long curfew” and employed “unlawful and unnecessary force” against him during protests in the upstate New York following the death of George Floyd. Gugino’s legal team, which has requested a jury trial for the civil suit, further posited that Officers Robert McCabe, Aaron Torgalski, and John Losi shoved the 75-year-old man to the ground “without warning” and “walked by without care” as he “lay unconscious on the sidewalk, blood pouring from his fractured skull.”
The litigation, filed in United States District Court for the Western District of New York, follows a grand jury declining to prosecute the trio of officers involved on Feb. 11. McCabe and Torgalski were suspended without pay after a video of the incident circulated en masse and they were charged with second-degree assault.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn addressed allegations that he threw the case following the decision to let the two officers walk.
GRAND JURY DECLINES TO INDICT TWO BUFFALO POLICE OFFICERS WHO PUSHED ELDERLY PROTESTER
“I’ve got 28 years as a naval officer, and I live and breathe every day by the core values: honor, courage, and commitment,” Flynn said. “And integrity happens to be a big thing with me. And I’m sitting here right now talking into every one of these mics, looking at every one of these cameras right here, looking at each one of you in the eye right now, and I’m telling you that I sandbagged nothing,” adding that he still believed “a crime was committed.”
Richard Weisbeck, one of the attorneys representing Gugino, said in a statement, “Gugino became the victim of police brutality at the very moment he was peaceably and constitutionally protesting against police brutality. Any statements to the contrary only serve to perpetuate and justify state violence against citizens.”
He continued: “If the roles were reversed, and Gugino pushed a BPD officer who then fractured his skull, he would have been immediately indicted, and for good reason.”
The lawsuit also notes the Buffalo Police Department’s 57-member Emergency Response Team, which donned riot gear at the time of the shoving. Attorneys referred to the group, which had its members resign in protest following the city’s decision to charge McCabe and Torgalski, as “militarized” and “draconian.”
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ERT members yelled, “Push him, push him,” before sending Gugino to the pavement, and city officials initially said the 75-year-old, who was later transported to a local hospital, “tripped and fell,” contrary to subsequent statements that faulted law enforcement for the assault, the complaint read.
Mayor Byron Brown’s office said it does not comment on pending litigation.
The Buffalo Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
