UNION SQUARE — About 40 people were arrested including one man who hit an NYPD officer as hundreds marched up Fifth Avenue against traffic Thursday evening to protest a recent spate of police shootings.
One of the protesters, a New Yorker in his 30s, hit an officer and was arrested for assault, an NYPD spokesman said Friday morning. The officer didn't need to be taken to the hospital and no other officers were injured in the demonstration, police said.
The majority of the arrests were for disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokesman said.
As protesters were marching through Manhattan, and through other cities across the nation, five police officers were killed and seven others wounded in a sniper attack at a similar demonstration in Dallas, according to The New York Times.
The Times called the Dallas carnage "the deadliest attack on law enforcement officers in the United States since 9/11."
The New York protesters gathered in the square just after 5 p.m., waving signs saying, "Stop the War on Black America" and "Justice for Alton Sterling."
New Yorkers are beautiful people. Union Square Park #BlackLivesMatter protest. #NYC. pic.twitter.com/mo2KEFlqSl
— Scott Wooledge (@Clarknt67) July 7, 2016
The marchers then headed north up Fifth Avenue. Some eventually made their way to Times Square.
The #blacklivesmatter protests is about 2-3 blocks long. Hundreds yelling "what do we want? Justice!" pic.twitter.com/CEORV8IgVf
— Noah Hurowitz (@NoahHurowitz) July 7, 2016
The demonstration came after several unrelated incidents nationwide in which black men were shot and killed by police officers.
On Tuesday, Alton Sterling, 37, was shot dead by police officers outside a Baton Rouge convenience store where he was selling CDs.
On Wednesday night, police in Minnesota shot dead Philando Castile, 32, during a traffic stop while his girlfriend and her 4-year-old child were in the car.
New York also had a fatal police-involved incident earlier this week, when an off-duty NYPD officer fatally shot an unarmed man during a road-rage altercation in East New York.
Hundreds of New Yorkers also gathered in Brooklyn on Wednesday night to protest that shooting.
