A 14-year veteran of the New York Police Department was suspended after he appeared to repeatedly punch a teenage girl in a video circulating online.
In a statement to Insider, NYPD said two officers, who were "assigned to a school dismissal post," "observed a large fight involving multiple female juveniles" on Tuesday (January 3) after school was let out.
"While attempting to take one of [the] individuals into custody, a 14-year-old female obstructed the arrest by reaching for an officer's handcuffs and striking the officer in the head," NYPD said in a statement. "The officer, assigned to the 121st Precinct, utilized physical force against this female by striking her with his hand several times. The 14-year-old female was taken into custody and removed to a local hospital where she was treated and released."
In a short video clip of the encounter, one person is heard yelling "He's hitting her? He's hitting her?" as the officer appears to punch the girl surrounded by a group of children.
The 14-year-old teenager, identified by CBS News as Kyonna Robinson, said she jumped in when another girl started fighting her 12-year-old sister.
"The girl is bigger than my sister, fighting my sister, of course, I'm gonna jump in. I didn't even know what was going on. I just ran over there," Kyonna told CBS News.
A longer video of the incident obtained by CBS News appears to show a police officer putting Kyonna's sister in handcuffs when she approached and bumped the officer.
"He pushed me and then I punched him in his face two times and we just started fighting," Kyonna said of her encounter with police."I don't care who you are. You touch me, I'm gonna fight back."
Mayor Eric Adams, a former New York police officer, confirmed Wednesday (January 4) that an investigation into the incident was underway.
“I was not pleased with what I saw on the video,” Adams said, per NBC News.
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