Michael Pacheco, owner of EZ
Does It Barber Shop, is accusing cops of pummeling him for no reason during an
undercover attempt to sell him a stolen iPhone 5.
NY Daily News
"They threw me across the
room and started beating my brother while he was handcuffed," said
Cummings, who says he settled a police brutality suit against the city for
approximately $200,000 last year. "I don't know what's going on with
Staten Island cops. They're not following procedures anymore."
Cummings was referring to the
Eric Garner incident in July where the Port Richmond man died of a chokehold in
police custody.
The altercation began last
Friday at approximately 2 p.m. when an informant entered the business under the
guise of trying to sell an iPhone 5, the family said. The NYPD initiative is
known as Operation Take Back, where officers try to sell stolen iPhones or
iPads.
Nobody bought the phone, the
owners said.
They said they told the seller
to leave before the younger Pacheco went outside with the informant to look at
the phone before bringing it inside to show everyone.
That's when the melee broke
out.
Then a few cops came into the
store without identifying themselves before one lieutenant starting screaming
about his phone, according to the family.
Pacheco told him nobody stole
anything, and during the heated argument the lieutenant showed his badge.
"We told him nobody did
anything. We're already upset because nobody did anything wrong," the
elder Pacheco said.
The cop called for backup and
almost instantly a group of 15 to 25 cops were crowded inside the small store.
During the fight, they threw
the younger Pacheco to the floor and beat him up, the family says.
"I was shocked by the
whole thing to be honest with you," Pacheco Jr. said. "I was ducking
and weaving while they're throwing uppercuts and punching me."
"I wish the cops were more
professional," the father said. "If they walked in with their IDs,
there would have been no misunderstanding."
Police arrested the three men
and took them to the 121st Precinct stationhouse, where they spent more than
four hours in a cell before they were released.
The men were charged with
disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal possession of stolen
property.
The father received a summons
for disorderly conduct, he said.
The men said they appeared at
Staten Island Criminal Court on Saturday, where they claim court officers told
them they wouldn't be prosecuted.
A spokesman for the Staten
Island district attorney's office said they declined to prosecute.
"The whole thing was so
upsetting," Pacheco Jr. said. "We knew they were wrong."
Internal Affairs was at the
barbershop Friday morning inquiring about the incident.
The family plans to sue the
city, they said.
Police have yet to respond to a
request for comment.
