The activist who was tased by an NYPD officer and violently arrested on Sunday evening in Bay Ridge was still in the hospital as of Wednesday, his attorney said.
Robert Bolden, 41, is being treated at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn for multiple fractures to his humerus bone and monitored for long-term heart damage from being shot with the stun gun, according to Bolden’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, who consulted with his client’s doctors.
“We believe strongly this is a case that must seriously be looked at by the District Attorney’s office with regards to criminality involving the actions of the police officers,” Rubenstein said. The civil rights attorney is calling for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez to press charges against the officers involved.
Bolden and another protester were arrested on Sunday evening in Bay Ridge, as pro-police demonstrators confronted Black Lives Matter counter-protesters—one of several tense and occasionally violent confrontations between the two groups that have occurred in recent days. Both of the people arrested Sunday night were Black men marching against police brutality, despite multiple videos that showed Black Lives Matter protesters being assaulted by pro-police demonstrators.
Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for Gonzalez office declined to comment on any potential investigation, and said that all charges against Bolden had been deferred, meaning he could potentially face prosecution at a later date, but that no charges were pending against him.
Video published by Freedom News TV from the Sunday arrest showed an NYPD officer shooting a stun gun at Bolden, who collapses to the ground twitching. Bolden stands up and is then surrounded by three police officers who pin him up against a car while bending his arms behind his back to handcuff him.
“You’re breaking my arm, you’re breaking my arm!” Bolden is heard yelling.
Following his arrest, police released a video of what appears to be Bolden throwing a construction helmet towards pro-police demonstrators. Bucky Turco who originally posted the video on Twitter before taking it down, said the helmet was thrown at 6:32 p.m., about an hour before Bolden’s arrest.
“Clearly the release of a video showing a helmet being thrown in the air had nothing to do with the manner in which this victim was taken into custody by police, sustaining the terrible injuries,” Rubenstein said.
The NYPD didn’t return a request for comment on Bolden’s injuries. At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Bolden’s arrest was being investigated.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said they are aware of the incident and are looking into it as part of the larger ongoing investigation into police conduct during the last month and half of protests.
Last week, James’s office released a preliminary report on the NYPD’s actions during the protests. While it made a series of top-level recommendations for the NYPD, it did not conclude whether the police department acted appropriately or not when it policed the protests.
On Wednesday the New York Times released a compilation of more than 60 videos taken during the protests in late May and early June that show the NYPD using violence against Black Lives Matter protesters.
An NYPD spokesperson told the paper that four officers had been disciplined, and that 51 incidents were being reviewed.
