MANHATTAN, NEW YORK — Bodycam footage has surfaced of an NYPD officer punching and dragging a homeless man off a train.
On July 15, the NYPD and the Manhattan district attorney said they're probing the incident which caught a police officer punching the man, identified as 30-year-old Joseph Troiano.
In the incident which occurred on May 25 at around 12:30 a.m, the two cops ask Troiano to leave the near-empty subway carriage because he took up more than one seat amid the coronavirus pandemic, after he refuses and allegedly kicks the officer in the hand, the cop repeatedly punches him in the face, throws him off the train and then pepper sprays him.
Incredibly, the NYPD charged Troiano with resisting arrest, obstruction of governmental administration, and was also hit with a local law violation, but Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance had the audacity to upgrade the charges to assault in the second-degree.
And on the 15, a DA spokeswoman explained that Troiano was 'charged with assault because the arresting officer reported an injury'; the officer claimed that the knuckles on his right hand had swollen as a result of being allegedly kicked and that he was unable to open and close his hand without experiencing pain.
The DA's office is now moving to dismiss the assault charge following an investigation.
In a statement on their website, The Legal Aid Society which is representing 30-year-old Troiano is calling for the two officers to be sacked.
They also previously called for the Manhattan DA to dismiss the charges against him 'in the interest of justice.'
They also rightly pointed out that it was equally shocking that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, despite seeing this video, still chose to upgrade the charges.
Speaking to The City, a shaken Joseph Troiano said, 'I felt like my heart was going to fall out' adding that he wondered if the police had approached him in a case of mistaken identity saying, 'I feel like somebody else did something that looks like me and I'm getting the repercussions from it.'
TomoNews is your best source for real news.
We cover the funniest, craziest and most talked-about stories on the internet.
If you're laughing, we're laughing.
If you're outraged, we're outraged.
We tell it like it is.
And because we can animate stories, TomoNews brings you news like you've never seen before.
Top TomoNews Stories - The most popular videos on TomoNews!
Http://bit.ly/Top_TomoNews_Stories You Idiot!
- People doing stupid things http://bit.ly/You-Idiot Recent Uploads - The latest stories brought to you by TomoNews http://bit.ly/Latest-TomoNews Ultimate TomoNews Compilations - Can't get enough of TomoNews?
This playlist is for you!
New videos every day http://bit.ly/Ulitmate_TomoNews_Compi... Thanks for watching TomoNews!
Like TomoNews on Facebook ►► http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Twitter ►► @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Instagram ►► @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus Subscribe to TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-TomoNews Watch more TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/MoreTomoNews Visit our website for all the latest videos: http://us.tomonews.com Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f Get top stories delivered to your inbox every day: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter