The New York City Police Department is now conducting an investigation after a video that surfaced on the Internet showed police officers knocking down a visibly pregnant woman to the ground on weekend.
The amateur footage of the incident showed Sandra Amezquita intervening in the arrest of her 17-year-old son in Sunset Park, Brooklyn early morning on Sept. 20. A cop, however, is seen throwing the woman, who is nearly six months pregnant, belly down on the ground.
"What we see is a woman who's trying to protect her son, who is being stopped and frisked by police, and she became a victim. Slammed onto the floor," said Dennis Flores, who is with the group El Grito de Sunset Park. "Her belly is now with black and blue bruises. She's bleeding and she's having complications."
Amezquita claimed that her altercation with the police started when she tried to intervene with the arrest of her teenage son and the alleged beating of the cops from the 72nd Precinct. Her son Jhohan Lemos was arrested for criminal possession of a knife and resisting arrest, and was seen with swollen eyes and bruised after his encounter with the police. The 17-year-old, however, claimed that the knife was planted by the cops on him.
"According to this young man, the cops, when they put the razor blade in his pocket, they told him, 'We're going to make sure this time, it sticks,'" Flores said. "So the mom saw this, started yelling out, and the cops grabbed her and slammed her against the floor."
Amezquita, who emigrated from Colombia and has four children, is due to deliver her baby in January next year. The 44-year-old pregnant mother, who experienced vaginal bleeding after her run-in with the cops, said that she is afraid that something might happen to her baby. She also feels that something is wrong given the persisting abdominal pains. Her husband Ronel Lemos also faces criminal charges for striking Officer Elvis Merizalde while the cop was arresting his son.
The incident is not the first time that cops from the 72nd Precinct were involved in a brow-raising incident. Another police officer from the same precinct was also suspended this month after he was caught on video kicking a street vendor.
The NYPD said that the Internal Affairs Bureau is now investigating the incident.
