Stripped of his gun and badge, a New York Police Department officer, Lt. Luis Machado, was assigned to modified duty following the March 17 arrest of an on-duty mail carrier.
According to the New York Daily News, mailman Glenn Grays was frisked, cuffed and hauled off to 71st Precinct in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for solely resisting arrest. The Daily News reports an officer and three other officials — zooming along in an unmarked car and without uniforms — striking the postal truck. Grays reportedly shouted at the driver, who placed the car in reverse, and the driver exchanged words with Grays, which lead to the illicit arrest.
Machado and his team, Police Officers Lazo Lluka, Miguel Rodriguez and David Savella, were instantly pulled from the elite conditions unit where they were assigned, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said in a Gawker article.
“I am very interested in the charge that was made against this individual, what he was arrested for and the validity of that,” Bratton said Tuesday. “Based on what I witnessed on the various videos I’ve reviewed I have strong concerns about the charge against that individual.”
Grays publicly addressed the incident Wednesday. He agrees that the officers should receive some type of punishment but doesn’t believe the incident should result in termination.
“Honestly speaking, we’re all human, we all make mistakes, but lately a lot of mistakes have been made by police officers,” Grays said.
Since the incident, videos of the arrest have gone viral and sparked an Internal Affairs Bureau investigation.
