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VIDEO: NYPD Investigates Claims Police Officer Shoved Pregnant Woman

By Nikhita Venugopal | September 23, 2014 2:36pm
VIDEO: Altercation Between Police Officers and Women in Sunset Park
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Facebook/El Grito De Sunset Park

SUNSET PARK — The NYPD is investigating what appears to be the excessive use of force against two women — one of whom is pregnant — caught on video over the weekend, according to officials and a local police watch group.

The video shows police officers on Fifth Avenue near 41st Street wrestling a woman onto the ground after attempting to restrain and arrest her sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Saturday. 

Moments later, another woman moves closer to the scene, but is shoved by an officer and is seen in the recording stumbling to the ground.

The circumstances leading up to the scuffle are not known, but Dennis Flores of El Grito De Sunset Park, an advocacy group that posted the video on Facebook Tuesday, said the pregnant woman was eating dinner at a nearby restaurant prior to the arrest.

Flores and police did not identify the women in the video.

The video comes less than a week after an officer from the 72nd Precinct was suspended for kicking a street vendor in the back during an altercation at a Sunset Park street festival.

It was not immediately clear whether the police officers in the video belonged to the 72nd precinct, which covers Sunset Park. The precinct did not respond to request for comment. 

The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the incident, a spokeswoman for the NYPD told DNAinfo New York in an email.