Grand jury declines to prosecute officer who allegedly put man in chokehold

A grand jury this week declined to prosecute David Afanador, a former NYPD officer accused of using an illegal chokehold on a man in Far Rockaway while making an arrest last year. Photo via NYPD/AP

By Jacob Kaye

A Queens grand jury declined to prosecute a former NYPD officer who was accused of putting a man in an illegal chokehold while making an arrest in Far Rockaway last year.

David Afanador, who retired from the NYPD after the incident, will not face charges after the grand jury found no true bill and declined to indict, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced this week.

While Katz said that she was legally barred from releasing the details of the grand jury’s proceedings, she was “moving to have the minutes of the grand jury hearings unsealed.”

On June 21, 2020, Afanador was one of the officers caught on cell phone video arresting Ricky Bellevue on the boardwalk near Beach 113th Street and the Ocean Promenade.

Afanador allegedly put Bellevue in a chokehold during the arrest, a maneuver that had just recently been made illegal by the City Council. It has long been against the policy of the NYPD to use chokeholds.

The officer was immediately suspended without pay after NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea called his actions “disturbing.”

Katz dropped the charges against Bellevue after the footage came out.

The incident wasn’t the first time Afanador had been accused of using excessive force.

In 2014, he was caught on video using his gun to hit a 16-year-old boy during a marijuana arrest, the AP reported. Afanador was suspended for the beating until he was reinstated in 2016 after being acquitted of the charges related to the incident.

Afanador’s attorney did not respond to request for comment.