Warning: This article contains graphic content
Two police officers in Buffalo, New York, have been suspended without pay after a video showed them shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground during a Black Lives Matter protest.
A video by local reporters for public radio station WBFO shows a 75-year-old man being pushed to the ground and bleeding from the head during protests in Buffalo, New York. Photo: Screenshot / Twitter / WBFO
The video, taken by a reporter from local public radio station WBFO and posted on its website and Twitter account, showed the white-haired man approaching a line of officers all wearing riot gear.
One officer pushed him with a baton and a second one with his hand. The sound of a crack is heard and then blood trickles from the man's head. The man, who is white, is not identified.
"I was deeply disturbed by the video," Buffalo mayor Byron Brown said in a statement.
"After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership and members of the community, tonight's event is disheartening."
The incident drew widespread condemnation on social media as protesters returned to the streets of several US cities to demonstrate against police brutality following the death of African American man George Floyd at the hands of police.
Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after former police officer Derek Chauvin put his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
The video in Buffalo shows the majority of the officers march past after the man falls, though the officer who pushed him with a baton starts to lean over him before he is motioned away by another officer. Someone is heard calling for a medic.
The radio station reported that two medics came forward and helped the man into an ambulance. Police later said that a man was injured after tripping and falling, the radio station said.
After viewing the video, Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood ordered an investigation and suspended the two officers, Brown said.
The 75-year-old victim was in stable but serious condition at Erie County Medical Center Hospital in Buffalo, Brown said.
- Reuters