Small protest decries NYPD captain’s apparent pistol-whipping of drug suspect
The caught-on-camera arrest in which a man allegedly driving a stolen car appeared to be pistol-whipped by an NYPD captain drew a small protest in Brooklyn on Sunday.
Melvin Oliphant, 44, was hit with drug possession, resisting arrest and other charges after cops found crack in the lifted BMW, authorities said. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment last week and was released without bail.
After the video of Oliphant’s arrest went viral over the weekend, the protest broke out Sunday at Herbert Von King Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant, just over a quarter mile from where Capt. Adan Munoz pulled the man over about 10:15 a.m. on March 27.
About 20 people marched from the park to the NYPD’s nearby 79th Precinct stationhouse, where they blocked traffic and some hurled insults at police officers standing out front.
“Gun-butting a New York City civilian is not OK,” said Dimez Cartier, 20. “That is not allowed within moral standards to any human.”
Munoz was in street attire and driving an unmarked vehicle when he spotted Oliphant behind the wheel of a 2019 BMW X7 with Pennsylvania license plates that did not match the registration, police said.
Video caught by a bystander shows the two men struggling as Munoz pointed a gun at Oliphant with the driver’s side door open.
The car’s engine revved as Munoz warned, “Don’t make this mistake!”
As onlookers gathered and shouted, “Stop, stop, stop,” Oliphant got out of the car and shoved Munoz, who appeared to take the butt of his gun and strike the man in the head, video shows.
Munoz kicked Oliphant several times before two uniformed cops ran into the frame and took Oliphant to the ground.
Bystanders gathered and watched the incident unfold until Oliphant was walked to a waiting police car.
“I feel like if they weren’t there, it would have been worse,” a friend of Oliphant’s told the Daily News on Saturday. “Them filming and them being present and them speaking up for him stopped a lot.”
The woman, who only identified herself as Jewel, came to Oliphant’s defense after the video circulated.
“Seeing the video was heartbreaking because I know him personally and I know he’s not an aggressive person,” said Jewel. “He’s a peacemaker and he’s really quiet and to himself, so that kind of disturbed me.”
After Munoz pistol-whipped him, Oliphant required staples in his head to close the gash, according to Jewel.
“He’s definitely suffering from PTSD,” she said. “[He’s] having a hard time going outside because he’s worried about not even just running into officers, but all of the publicity that it has brought because he’s a very quiet, to-himself type of man.”
Munoz, who joined the NYPD in 2004, has been the subject of 15 civilian complaints and a slew of lawsuits, records show. He was promoted to captain last year, according to NYPD personnel records.
He remains on active duty as Internal Affairs Bureau cops investigate the incident, police officials said.
Oliphant is due back in court in June.
