Saturday night, NYPD officers smashed a handcuffed 14-year-old’s head through a hookah shop window in the Bronx, according to witnesses. Javier Payne suffered a punctured lung and was critically bleeding after the incident, according to the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, and was rushed to the Jacobi Medical Center.
No security footage exists, but according to Nageib Aldaylam, owner of Hookah Shop Plus, the scene was placid until police arrived:
“The kids came in normal, and they left normal,” he said. “They did zero, nothing. All the action happened outside.”
As soon as Payne and his friend stepped out of the store and back on to Arthur Avenue the police officers stopped them. He said he heard the boys and the officers arguing and that heated words were exchanged. He said they went back and forth for several minutes when he was jolted by the sound of the glass exploding.
He said the Payne was sitting on his stoop moaning: “I’m bleeding, I’m bleeding.
It wouldn’t be the first time the NYPD has exhibited similar behavior: in March, Brooklyn cops threw a 15-year-old girl through a restaurant window.
According to Cherita Payne, Javier’s mother, the NYPD is conducting an internal investigation about the arresting officers’ behavior. “You got to stop this, you got to put a stop to this,” she told JJE. “We’ve got to stand up for ourselves, for our children. We’re human. We have rights. My kid has rights, too.”
(Photo: @Dave Hosford)
