Sep 2, 2007 12:03 pm US/Eastern
Alleged Police Brutality Caught On Tape In Yonkers
Video Shows Man Being Restrained, Carried By Multiple Officers
CBS 2's Liz Hur contributed to this report.
YONKERS, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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This shot captured from amateur video shows Yonkers police carrying Eric Brown into a police car. The department is being investigated for alleged claims of brutality in the incident.
CBS
Yonkers police are once again facing allegations of police brutality, with the latest incident being caught on tape and witnessed by numerous people.
The incident happened Friday night and comes just days after the Justice Department announced it was investigating a series of brutality complaints against Yonkers police officers.
The federal probe is looking to see if there are "systemic violations of laws in the use of force" by Yonkers police.
Digg This Story!Amateur video shows the latest altercation, which allegedly unfolded about 5 p.m. Friday night. Witnesses say 27-year-old Eric Brown and his wife Monique were stopped by police while they were walking their pit bull.
Witnesses say police started to get violent with Brown after he said the pit bull belonged to a friend. The video shows multiple officers lifting Brown off the ground and carrying him into a police car after restraining him on the ground.
Brown's 8-year-old daughter and his mother-in-law watched the entire incident unfold.
"My mom was saying, 'Stop, stop, get off him, he didn't do nothing,' so they just took my mom and grabbed her," his daughter said.
Added his mother-in-law: "He started grabbing Eric. He started grabbing him, throwing him on the floor for no reason. He didn't do nothing wrong."
Witnesses also say they heard police officers using racial slurs.
CBS 2 HD reached out to the Yonkers police department, but a person there said their spokesperson won't be available to comment until Tuesday.
Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone says his city will cooperate fully with the federal probe into police brutality. "When it's all said and done the Justice Department will in fact agree with us that our Police Department does an excellent job under sometimes very tough conditions," he said.
Yonkers is a city of about 200,000 just north of the Bronx. It is 17 percent black, according to the 2000 Census.
Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 HD for the latest on this developing story.
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