The elderly man who was apparently injured by police while being arrested during a jaywalking incident was in court today. The son of 84-year-old Kang Wong said, "This whole ordeal for our family has been a nightmare. My father isn’t a criminal, he is the victim here."
Police say that Wong had been walking without the light at 96th Street and Broadway, a busy intersection where vehicles killed two pedestrians (and two blocks from where another car killed a little boy). Wong doesn't understand English, and it seems that an officer pursed Wong. A witness told the Post, "The cop tried to pull him back and that’s when he [the pedestrian] began to struggle with the cop. As soon as he pushed the cop, it was like cops started running in from everywhere."
Wong, who lives on West 97th, was bloodied and bruised, and charged with jaywalking, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. Today, his lawyer said the charges ought to be dropped: "This police officer acted excessively. The officer body-slammed Mr. Wong into the sidewalk, causing injuries to his head."
The Manhattan DA's office is reviewing the charges. NYPD internal affairs is also reviewing the incident, but Police Commissioner Bratton had said shortly after the incident that he thought Wong fell and was injured that way.
