Credit: Enid Alvarez/ New York Daily News
There will be no charges filed against a New York Police Department (NYPD) sergeant who was accused of slamming a handcuffed Black teen through a hookah bar window back in May.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said there is not enough evidence to prove Sgt. Eliezer Pabon used any excessive force when he slammed a handcuffed, 14-year-old Javier Payne into the hookah bar’s window, causing it to shatter, according to the NY Daily News.
Prosecutors insisted that the window was not structurally sound and that it was already on the verge of shattering due to two BB holes that were already in the window.
After the incident, Payne was sent to the hospital where he received 50 staples in his side and bandages were wrapped around injuries on his head.
Payne’s mother, Cherita Payne, was infuriated by the prosecutors explanation for her son being slammed through the window and said prosecutors did nothing more than come up with a “sorry excuse.”
“I feel like justice wasn’t done,” she said “My son almost died.”
Payne had no prior arrests before the incident.
Back in May, Payne and a younger friend were accused of assaulting a man who refused to give them cigarettes.
Sgt. Pabon was the one who responded to the incident and said he was simply trying to keep the teen still when he pushed him up against the window of the Hookah Spot on Arthur Ave.
A nearby surveillance camera did capture the incident and according to Sergeants Benevolent Association lawyer Andrew Quinn, that video proved Sgt. Pabon’s innocence.
Michael Schwartz/ New York Daily News
Quinn insisted that the footage made it “clear that what happened should not have caused the window to explode like that.”
Despite controversy over whether or not the window was structurally sound, there are still questions regarding just how hard the sergeant really needed to shove a young 14-year-old, especially considering Payne’s slender frame.
Payne’s mother made it clear that she is not hoping to excuse her son from any wrong doing but she said that didn’t give any officer the right to shove him through a window.
Rev. Al Sharpton shared those same sentiments.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Sharpton said at the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem back in May. “We cannot have a city where policemen come and shove handcuffed children through windowpanes.”
The teen’s lawyer, Scott Rynecki, said the fight for justice is far from over.
“We intent to seek justice for the family in a civil forum suing the sergeant and the city for his actions,” Rynecki said.
The criminal charges against Javier have been dismissed.
