Bronx man arrested after cop put knee on his neck promises excessive force lawsuit against NYPD
A Bronx man punched and Tasered in a caught-on-video clash with police announced plans for a lawsuit Saturday over the fast-escalating sidewalk struggle in which an officer subdued him with a knee on his neck.
“The kind of excessive force they use is unnecessary,” Romaine Francis, 29, told the Daily News. “It would have been a different scenario if there was, like, a weapon involved or any kind of threat to their life.
“I would understand that, but if there’s no kind of things like that, there’s no need for you to use such force against anybody. It doesn’t matter who it is.”
Francis said he “100%” believed his civil rights were violated, adding he was in contact with an attorney and intends to sue the NYPD.
According to Francis, a friend pulled out his cellphone and began recording the evening of April 16 after seeing police arresting a man on what Francis recalled was “a dirt bike or something.”
Francis said he was ordering food in a nearby store when someone came inside to say his friend was getting locked up for interfering with the arrest.
When Francis emerged, his pal was already in handcuffs and things heated up.
“I asked him, ‘What’s going on? What happened?’” he recounted inside his home. “And in the midst of him telling me what happened, that’s when the whole commotion started.”
Francis said that before his friend could respond, a police officer told him to “mind your business.” A second officer, he said, told him something that made him upset — he does not remember what — to which he replied: “Word to my mother, don’t touch me.”
The 35-second video from that evening showed Francis bumping chests with an officer as the scuffle ensued.
Francis, in a white sweatsuit and baseball cap, ignored police orders to back away, the NYPD said.
The NYPD said Francis placed his hands around the neck of a female police officer but that moment is mostly inadvertently blocked from view by another cop in the scuffle in the video.
Francis claimed he tried to break free from the confrontation, and that in the scuffle he was pushed and tripped and fell to the sidewalk.
The video shows four police officers subduing Francis, with two punching him before he was taken to the ground and Tasered.
One of the officers used her knee to pin the Francis’ head down against the pavement, and two cops punched the suspect before his arrest, the video showed.
Francis was arrested on a half-dozen charges, including assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.
The man whose arrest led Francis to confront the officers was identified by police on Saturday as Wilfredo Solano, 26. He was charged with obstruction of governmental administration, criminal possession of a weapon — a spring-loaded knife — and unlawful possession of a “noxious matter,” which police said was a spray.
The person on what Francis described as a “dirt bike or something” — police said it was an ATV — fled the scene.
An NYPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing the incident, though none of the officers involved were shifted to other jobs as of Friday night.
Francis’ bail was set at $5,000 cash or $20,000 bond. He posted bail and was released on Wednesday.
“From my perspective, they way (police) go about things, they should not go about things that way,” said Francis. “They should not go about things like that because we’ve had multiple accidents like that before. You know what I’m saying?”
