Disturbing and horrific footage from the New York state city of Buffalo has captured the moment a man suffered clearly serious head injuries after being shoved by a police officer.
Footage captured by radio station WBFO shows a line of police sweeping through the city’s Niagara Square area, outside the Buffalo City Hall, as protest action in support of the Black Lives Matter movement was wrapping up for the day.
An unidentified man steps forward, appearing to confront police officers as they swept through to clear the area.
The footage then clearly shows a police officer violently shoving the man, who stumbles and falls backwards out of frame. An audible thud is heard as the man impacts the pavement. The footage then shows blood immediately pouring out of the man’s ear, who was lying on the ground unresponsive.
A police officer briefly pauses and begins to check on him, but he is then ushered away by another officer.
A warning, the footage in the below is extremely graphic.
https://twitter.com/WBFO/status/1268712530358292484
Gallingly, Buffalo Police officials issued a statement following the incident, asserting “During that skirmish involving protestors, one person was injured when he tripped & fell.”
The incident occurred in the exact same spot that Buffalo police officials knelt in solidarity with protesters only yesterday.
Same spot yesterday pic.twitter.com/wsUA90vLHt
— Pug 🐾 🐛 🥫 (@pugmane) June 5, 2020
The man was reportedly attended to by medical officials and transported to hospital. His condition is reportedly stable, according to reporters in the region.
I’ve seen videos of the incident in front of Buffalo’s City Hall in which an older protester appears to have been shoved by police, fell backwards and suffered a serious head injury. It sickens me. I’ve confirmed he is at ECMC in stable condition. My thoughts are with him now.
— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) June 5, 2020
