New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill, seen here at an October press conference, said police are reviewing video of an incident Friday in Brooklyn that he described as ‘very disturbing.’ PHOTO: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
Two New York City peace officers were placed on modified duty Monday after they forced a woman holding a 1-year-old to the ground at a city agency’s office and removed the boy from her arms with the help of New York Police Department officers, city officials said.
The two peace officers work for the city’s Human Resources Administration, and at the time of the incident were assigned to a Brooklyn office that administers food stamps, according to city officials. They were placed on modified duty after cellphone video of the incident went viral on social media over the weekend, sparking demands for a probe into the officers’ actions from politicians, lawyers and advocates.
The 23-year-old mother, Jazmine Headley, was arrested after the incident on Friday and charged with resisting arrest, acting in a manner injurious to a child, obstructing governmental administration and trespassing, police said. The city’s child welfare agency took her son and placed him with a relative, according to police officials. No one was injured in the incident, police officials said.
The cellphone video didn’t capture the entire incident. It begins with Ms. Headley on the ground, cradling her child and shouting, “They’re hurting my son,” as the officers attempt to pull him away. A raucous crowd of bystanders surround the officers, and at one point, an NYPD officer stands up andpoints a stun-gun at onlookers, the video shows.
NYPD commissioner James O’Neill said police are reviewing video of the incident, which he described as “very disturbing.” The NYPD’s internal affairs bureau is investigating the incident, a police spokesman said.
“It was obviously a very chaotic situation, you can see that in the video,” Mr. O’Neill said. “And we have to see what the decision-making process was.”
Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks, who oversees HRA, said he is “deeply troubled” by the incident and directed de-escalation training for the HRA peace officers and security staff. “I am reinforcing efforts to train officers and staff to better diffuse situations before the NYPD is called for assistance,” he said in a statement.
Ms. Headley’s attorney, Lisa Schreibersdorf, said as of Monday her client was still in a city jail on Rikers Island. A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney said prosecutors didn’t request bail in the case, but Ms. Headley remained in jail because of a prior arrest warrant in New Jersey. A spokesman for the Mercer County, N.J., sheriff office said Ms. Headley had an outstanding warrant from July 2017 for failure to appear in court for alleged credit-card fraud.
Ms. Headley took a day off from work on Friday to go to the HRA office in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn to learn why she stopped receiving government assistance with her child care, Ms. Schreibersdorf said. When there were no seats available, she decided to sit on the floor, prompting a security guard to come and tell her to move, Ms. Schreibersdorf and a police official said.
The NYPD received a call after 12:53 p.m. reporting that office staff and HRA peace officers were trying to remove someone for “disorderly conduct towards others, and for obstructing the hallway,” according to a police statement.
Officers told Ms. Headley to leave the center, according to police. NYPD body camera footage shows the HRA officers bringing the woman down to the floor as she held her child, according to a police official.
HRA declined to provide more details of the incident.
Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, said things would have unfolded differently if everyone at the scene complied with the officers’ commands.
“The immediate rush to condemn these officers leaves their fellow cops wondering, ‘When confronted with a similar impossible scenario, what do you want us to do?’ ” Mr. Lynch asked in a statement. “The answer cannot be do nothing.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called for all charges to be dropped at a news conference in front of the HRA center on Monday.
“This is supposed to be the place families come to regain their dignity, not to have it ripped away from them,” Mr. Adams said.