New York City officials are investigating a confrontation at a city-run shelter in Queens where police officers struck and used a stun gun on a Venezuelan migrant while he was holding his 1-year-old son.
Video footage obtained by The New York Times shows two police officers, who had been called to the shelter over a dispute on Friday night, trying to restrain the man, Yanny Cordero, 47, while he is backed against a closed elevator door at the shelter, his child held tightly in his arms.
One of the officers pulls out a yellow stun gun and appears to stun Mr. Cordero before throwing a punch at his head, the video shows.
The officers continue to restrain Mr. Cordero after they separate him from his son, pinning his head against a desk as they try to wrestle him to the floor. A third officer gets involved and punches Mr. Cordero twice in the face before the officers subdue and arrest him.
“This is abuse, brother!” a man who recorded the video with his phone is heard shouting in Spanish. “Don’t hit him! Don’t hit him! Don’t hit him, brother! That’s an abuse! Where are the human rights?”
