Shawn Thomas recorded Police
Officer Efrain Rojas inside the Utica Ave. station while he was giving a
summons to another person. Rojas came over with his iPhone and started
recording his encounter with Thomas. Rojas asked Thomas to stop recording and
leave while Thomas hurled profanities. Thomas’ phone was taken away and the was
video deleted but later recovered. He was charged with multiple offenses.
A transit cop allegedly
assaulted, then arrested a 47-year-old man recording another man getting a
summons at a Brooklyn subway station, according to a bombshell video released
Wednesday.
Shawn Thomas of New Rochelle
claimed Police Officer Efrain Rojas attacked him, arrested him and then tried
to delete the video of Saturday’s interaction at Brooklyn’s Utica Ave. station.
Thomas told
photographyisnotacrime.com that Rojas dragged him out of the station, forced
him face down on a snowswept sidewalk and slammed his head into the pavement,
splitting his lip.
“I was bleeding profusely,” he
told the website. Attempts to reach Thomas for comment were unsuccessful
Wednesday. “I was having really bad head pains while in jail, so they took me
back to the hospital the following morning.”
Thomas was transported to the
hospital twice as he awaited his arraignment Sunday, he said, according to the
site.
He was released on his own
recognizance after being charged with obstructing government administration,
resisting arrest, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. He is due back in
court April 1.
Court records indicate Rojas
repeatedly asked Thomas to step back as the civilian recorded the 5:50 p.m.
arrest, then asked him to leave the station, but Thomas refused.
Officer Rojas escorted Thomas
out, but the 47-year-old followed him right back into the station, where he
refused to be handcuffed, according to court records.
The video shows Officer Rojas
walking up and using his personal iPhone to videotape the camera-wielding
Thomas as he recorded a peaceful interaction between another police officer and
a young man who had been handcuffed.
Why are you invading my
personal space?” Thomas asks before asking Rojas’ for his name and shield
number.
“You’re violating my personal space too,”
Rojas said.
“Do you pick and choose what
part of your patrol guide to read?” Thomas asked.
After a brief back and forth
about personal space and patrol guides, Rojas began making threats
“Maybe I should arrest you,”
the cop said.
“Try it and see what happens.
Now back the f--- up and get out of my personal space,” Thomas screams — one of
several times he shouts profanities at the officer.
“That’s three times you cursed at me,” Rojas
said. “I haven’t cursed at you once.”
“That’s two,” Thomas corrected
him. “Now back the f--- up. That’s three.”
“This is my station right
here,” Rojas said, ordering Thomas to leave.
When Thomas didn’t, Rojas
grabbed him. Thomas’ video cuts out at that point.
Another man recorded Rojas
handcuffing Thomas’ as he kneeled on his back outside the station. The witness
who recorded Thomas’ arrest tracked him down on Facebook, Thomas claimed.
Rojas allegedly pulled the
batteries from Thomas’ camera after grabbing his arm and escorting him out of
the station, the 47-year-old told the website.
When Thomas pulled out his
Blackberry to continue recording, Rojas got violent, he claimed.
“He then knocked the phone out
of my hand and slams me to the ground,” Thomas told the website. “Then he
grabbed the back of my head and slammed it into the pavement.”
The video doesn’t show the
arrest or the alleged violence.
Rojas allegedly deleted the
video, but Thomas was able to recover the deleted footage through a free
program called Recuva.
The NYPD's Transit Bureau
Investigations Unit and the Civilian Complaint Review Board are reviewing the
video, according to NYPD top spokesman Stephen Davis.
