Video posted on Instagram shows an NYPD officer repeatedly hitting and kneeing a man in the head while trying to arrest him in the Bronx.
Two officers were trying to handcuff Darnell Simmons, 26, around 1:45 p.m. on May 4 in Morris Park because he was wanted in a robbery pattern, an NYPD spokesman said. The third person in the video was a good Samaritan, cops said.
A user with the handle gohardboyznyc posted the violent clip late Friday afternoon.
The NYPD spokesman, Lt. John Grimpel, said the clip only shows 30 seconds of an ordeal that lasted at least seven minutes.
He said Simmons was wanted for a 20-robbery pattern in Manhattan and the Bronx and that he violently struggled with cops because he didn’t want to be cuffed.
Simmons faced a long list of charges after the incident shown in the video, including assaulting a police officer, harassment, and resisting arrest.
He punched, kicked and bit officers Billy Acosta and Mathew Wright when they attempted to arrest him, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Bronx District Attorney.
He also pushed Wright into a counter where he hit his head, which was later stapled a Jacobi Medical Center, and Wright also suffered a broken nose, according to the complaint.
Grimpel said one officer suffered two herniated discs, a sprained knee and a torn ligament. A second had plastic surgery to fix a severely broken nose, torn ligament in his thumb and stitches in his head.
Simmons is currently in the solitary confinement complex on Rikers Island, and is being held on $150,000 bail,according to the Department of Corrections.
He was charged with two counts of second-degree burglary and one count of assaulting a cop. He was also wanted on a parole warrant.
