Sgt. Reginald McReynolds, a 19 year veteran of the NYPD, was returning to his girlfriend's Bronx apartment with their Chinese food one night at the end of October when he was stopped by a rookie cop and his partner. Officers Kyle Bach and Joseph Azevedo, who are white, were responding to a domestic dispute call in the building. The perp was described as in his late 20s and weighing about 150 pounds; McReynolds is a 42-year-old black man weighing in at 275 pounds. Nevertheless, McReynolds says Bach"came right up in my face and said, 'What fucking apartment are you going to?'" It's no surprise that the ensuing exchange wasn't all that courteous, professional, or respectful.
McReynolds pointed to his girlfriend's door, but Bach allegedly threatened to arrest him for criminal trespass. "He took out his penlight and shined it right in my eyes blinding me," McReynolds tells the Daily News. "I let him know I'm on the job and was looking for my wallet and he struck me in the neck with his [baton]...[Bach] said to me, 'I'm gonna take your pension today.'...I was minding my business. I can think of no other reason for being stopped but my skin color." (Also in October, it was reported that a fight broke out between plainclothes black detectives and the white officers who allegedly profiled them in Gravesend.)
McReynolds was handcuffed and detained for about 20 minutes, while his girlfriend snapped photos with her cell phone. According to reports obtained by the News, McReynolds is accused of "stonewalling" the cops, pushing Azevedo and telling his girlfriend to say he was assaulted. But his lawyer insists, "The cops' story is an afterthought to justify their unconstitutional stop." And McReynolds is just shocked that a couple of cops could treat a black man so disrespectfully: "This incident has opened my eyes."
