A Brooklyn barbecue party became the scene for a melee involving the partiers and housing cops. The police 'shot 28 year old Robert Ramirez after he allegedly hit one of the cops with a scooter. And Ramirez, whose left lung was removed and is at Brookdale Hospital, was provoked when his stepfather, known as both Adiel Ramirez and Jose Morales, was confronted by the police. It all started when the police asked the courtyard party at the Glenwood Houses in East Flatbush to turn down the music, and then it's they said, they said. Witnesses claim that the police were roughing up Adiel Ramirez (one said, "They handcuffed him and started beating him") after asking him for ID and that his stepson stepped in defend him. However, the police say there were people smoking pot and that a DJ punched one of the officers in the face. After the younger Ramirez hit police officer with a Razor scooter, the officer shot him in the chest. The Daily News reports that a partygoer shot video on a cellphone, but the video doesn't show the police beating Adiel Ramirez or the younger Ramirez hitting the cop with a scooter.
Adiel Ramirez was taken into police custody; some of the accounts say he does not speak English and did not understand the police's earlier requests for ID. While we do wonder if the police are a little too trigger-happy (especially after the Bronx incident involving 26 bullets and a pitbull), we're not sure hitting a cop with a scooter was a good idea, either.
