“Are we surprised we’re here in the hospital again? Did we doubt, because of the rhetoric we’re hearing, the anti-police rhetoric that’s storming our streets, are we surprised that we got this call? I’m not,” said Patrick Lynch, who heads the New York City Police Benevolent Association (NYC PBA), in reference to an altercation between three city police officers and a civilian in Brooklyn late Wednesday.
According to a statement to Newsweek from New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Dermot Shea, the officers were assigned to patrol a Brooklyn neighborhood for potential looting when a man stabbed one in the neck and shot two others. Those who were shot sustained wounds to their hands, the statement said, adding that all three were hospitalized and are expected to recover. A report from local news outlet WNBC on Thursday said authorities were investigating the incident as a possible terror attack, citing unnamed sources. NYPD declined to comment on those claims, saying the investigation remained active.
NYPD has come under scrutiny on several occasions over the past week amid ongoing protests, after officers were seen driving police vehicles into a crowd over the weekend, assaulting a peaceful protestor with pepper spray and physically shoving another. Nonviolent demonstrations have been subject to increased surveillance and, at times, forceful retaliation by law enforcement after stores were burglarized, and property was damaged during rallies.
At least 1,500 protestors have been arrested in New York during protests since Floyd’s death, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. According to TIME, a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society against NYPD on Tuesday alleges that hundreds of those detained are being held in custody unlawfully, violating their right to an arraignment within 24 hours of arrest. It demanded their immediate release.
Newsweek reached out to the NYC PBA for comment regarding Lynch’s press conference remarks about NYPD officers’ injuries but did not receive replies by publication.
