Two NYPD officers fatally shot a man that they claim grabbed one of the officer’s batons and proceeded to hit him over the head. According to the New York Post, Erickson Gomez Brito, 21, was killed after a male and female officer responded to a call of a “suspicious person,” at the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Brito was found on the 9th floor where residents said he would frequent to smoke cigarettes.
“A conversation ensued, and the next thing you know . . . the officers are in a scuffle with this man,” said NYPD Housing Bureau Chief James Secreto.
During the scuffle, Officer Andris Bisogno grabbed his baton, Brito allegedly snatched it and proceeded to beat him, leaving a two-inch gash. Bisogno’s partner, Officer Jennifer Garcia, was reportedly struck with the baton as well.
The fight looked like a “bloody cage match,” a source told the Post.
Both officers were taken to Jamaica Hospital, with Bisogno requiring stitches and fracturing his finger during the melee. Garcia suffered bruises to the head.
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the cops in the hospital Saturday afternoon.
Brito’s sister and his mother don’t believe the police account. “Why did they have to kill him? Why! What did he do?” said 19-year-old Omahis Gomez Brito. “Why didn’t they just shoot his legs or something? Why? Why?”
The teen vowed to get justice for her slain brother, whom she said previously suffered from depression and drug addiction.
“He has a family,” she explained. “He’s not somebody that’s been in gangs and all that stuff. They’re not just gonna kill somebody and think they’re going to get away with it.”
A neighbor described the deceased man as being “a little bit off” but very quiet.
Cops all over the country have been subjected to attacks, some of which have been fatal. However, it appears that violence isn’t always met with violence — depending on the suspect in question.
Nine police officers were killed by civilians over a two-week span in November and only one suspect died at the hands of cops, another took his one life and the rest were taken into custody alive — including 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene who killed two Iowa police officers at the beginning of the month.