WATCH: NYC Settles For $614,500 With Bronx Man Who Was Beaten by NYPD Cops

December 9, 2016
A Bronx man beaten by cops more than four years ago in an attack that was caught on video has successfully sued the city for $614,500 — and now he wants the officers who attacked him fired.
Jateik Reed, 24, and his family rallied outside 1 Police Plaza Friday to demand that Police Commissioner James O’Neill fire the 42nd Precinct cops that assaulted him and his friends on Jan. 26, 2012.
“There’s gotta be a change,” Reed said. “They’ve got to do something about the police system, some type of supervision.”
Cell phone camera footage captured cops pushing, kicking and striking Reed with a baton as he lay on the ground along E. 168th St. in University Heights.
One of the cops also appears to threaten the person taping the arrest with pepper spray.
The footage was posted to YouTube, prompting prosecutors and NYPD Internal Affairs investigators to open a probe, police said.
The officers were stripped of their guns and shields when the investigation began, but police did not disclose details of the internal review.
“All of the individuals involved in the incident have been disciplined by the NYPD,” a department spokesman said.
The spokesman would not say how the officers were disciplined.
Reed and his friends sued the NYPD and the city in 2013 — and settled for $614,500, according to court records.
Sgt. Alfonsina Delacruz, one of the officers accused of beating Reed after he was cuffed, was ordered to contribute $5,000.
Even though the settlement checks have been cut, the cops need to be accountable, attorney Gideon Oliver said.
“The Police Department’s line on this is that it’s a done deal and they’ve disciplined the officers involved.” He called their response “laughable.”
“I’m not satisfied because I could’ve been killed there,” Reed said. “Police officers are humans just like us. They’re supposed to enforce the law — not be above the law.”
Oliver said paying up isn’t sufficient.
“The city and the police can cut a check and say it’s the cost of doing business, but that isn’t an incentive for them to make any changes. Jateik and his family want to call for something else … something more.”
Police claimed at the time that they saw Reed with drugs and that he fought the arresting officers as he tried to ditch the narcotics, according to court records.
One of the cops said Reed head-butted him in the cheek and punched him in the nose, causing injuries that required stitches at a local hospital, the records show.
When Reed’s mother Schuan Reed and his two younger brothers, ages 16 and 4, went to the 42nd Precinct station house to inquire about what happened, cops took all three into custody, his attorneys said.
The charges against Reed and his family members were ultimately dropped.
Cops assigned to the 42nd Precinct made headlines earlier this week when a video surfaced showing Detective David Terrell playing dice on the street while a suspect under arrest sat unattended in his patrol car.
The suspect was taken into custody for playing loud music on the street in Claremont, officials said.
Terrell was stripped of his gun and shield in November — but for an off-duty domestic violence incident, not for the dice game, officials said.
“The 42nd Precinct has been doing corrupt things for years,” Schuan Reed said. “I don’t understand how they haven’t been held accountable for their actions.”
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