Queens DA declines to prosecute cop who appeared to kneel on man’s neck
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Body-worn camera footage appeared to show an officer kneeling on the neck of a man in Jamaica on Jan. 2. Image via cell phone video
By David Brand
The Queens District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute an NYPD officer who appeared to kneel on a man’s neck during an arrest Jan 2, DA Melinda Katz said Friday.
Two cell phone videos from the scene in Jamaica seemed to show 113th Precinct Officer Thomas Montario kneeling against Sircarlyle Arnold, 34, while bystanders scream for him to remove his knee. Arnold, a Long Island resident, was charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment and four vehicle traffic offenses, but the Queens DA’s Office agreed to drop the charges, Arnold’s attorney said Friday.
The footage drew an immediate rebuke from Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said he was “deeply disturbed” by the incident. “A full investigation is underway and I demand immediate answers from the NYPD,” he tweeted Jan. 7.
New York City enacted a law last year criminalizing police chokeholds or other actions that restrict someone’s breathing during an arrest. Katz brought the first charges against a cop under the new law in June.
But on Friday, Katz said there was insufficient evidence to charge Montario for unlawful use of force or restricting Arnold’s breathing under the law, Administrative Code 10-181.
“While I fully support the spirit of legislation that prioritizes police accountability and thereby promotes community engagement, the elements of AC 10-181 are not satisfied in this case,” Katz said. “There is insufficient evidence of an unlawful method of restraint being used during the handcuffing procedure of Mr. Arnold.”
She said her office conducted an investigation in conjunction with two medical experts and an NYPD training and tactics expert, interviewed multiple officers and reviewed body-worn camera footage before making the decision to drop the case. The evidence available did not satisfy the requirements of the law, she said.
“The law requires a finding that the officer involved restricted the flow of air or blood by either compressing Mr. Arnold’s windpipe or the carotid arteries on each side of his neck,” Katz said. “There could be no such finding under the facts here.”
“Neither did the evidence support a finding that air or blood flow were restricted by sitting, kneeling or standing on the neck in a manner that compresses the diaphragm,” she added.
Arnold’s attorney Olayemi Olurin of the Legal Aid Society said none of the experts spoke to her client, however. She called the decision not to prosecute the officer “a deliberate miscarriage of justice.”
“Explain to me how you could make that determination with no one ever speaking to him,” she said. “My client said the officer obstructed his breathing. He could not breath.”
She questioned why Katz made the announcement amid the ongoing trial of the Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd. Ex-cop Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, killing him and touching off weeks of protests in New York City and around the world.
“It’s a slap in the face to anybody that cares, anybody that police brutality affects,” Olurin said. “In the middle of this trial, that is the moment to tell New Yorkers you don’t care about police accountability?”
The incident occurred near 113-08 Sutphin Blvd. in Jamaica shortly before 7 p.m. Jan. 2, according to a criminal complaint. Arnold and about 50 others had been driving ATVs and dirt bikes during a memorial ride for a friend who died, Olurin told the Eagle in January.
She said an officer “tapped” on Arnold’s ATV to tell him to stop riding. When Arnold dismounted, he fell on the ground and multiple officers tackled him, she said.
One appeared to kneel on Arnold’s neck, the two cell phone videos show.
The arresting officers’ body-worn camera was damaged during the arrest rendering the footage obsolete, Olurin said prosecutors told her.
In Arnold’s criminal complaint, Montario wrote that Arnold swung his ATV close to officers.
The Queens DA’s Office released a 2-minute 24-second piece of body worn camera footage from an officer involved in the arrest. The footage does not provide a clear picture of what happened around Arnold’s neck and head.
Additional reporting by Rachel Vick.
