An NYPD officer who was bashed in the head during a violent confrontation with two men was cheered by colleagues as he left hospital on Monday.
Officer Lesly Lafontant, 53, was saluted by a large gathering of NYPD cops as he emerged from the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center.
Lafontant, a 21-year veteran of the force, still had a visibly swollen face and eyes after he was put in a medically induced coma following the incident involving two men on Friday.
He also gave high-fives and shook hands with several cops before being helped into a waiting NYPD van. He had been struck in the head with a metal chair.
NYPD officer Lesly Lafontant, (pictured), who was bashed in the head during a violent confrontation with two men was cheered by colleagues as he left hospital on Monday
Police say Lafontant was hurt by Kwesi Ashun, (left), who barged into a nail salon and fought officers as they were arresting another man, Dewayne Hawkes, (right) for urinating on the floor
Police say Lafontant was hurt by a man who barged into a nail salon and fought officers as they were arresting another man for urinating on the floor.
Police say the officer shot the man because efforts to subdue him with a stun gun were unsuccessful. Kwesi Ashun, 33, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dewayne Hawkes, 26, was arraigned on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing following the incident at Goldmine Nail Salon in Brooklyn, New York.
The fatal brawl began when two officers, a veteran and a rookie, began taking Hawkes into custody.
Ashun, 33, a T-shirt vendor who is well known in the neighborhood, apparently rushed into the salon and tried to stop the arrest, attacking the two officers.
Officials said that Ashun went berserk, beating the veteran officer over the head with a chair, as the rookie tried in vain to subdue him with a Taser.
The veteran managed to pull out his gun and shoot at Ashun six times, hitting him at least once in the head. Ashun was declared dead at the scene.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Rose said a decision was made to put Lafontant, a married father-of-four in a coma for 36 hours.
He told New York Daily News: ‘It was real severe trauma to his face, broken bones around the eye and it affected his entire body.
‘He was on a ventilator, he was sedated and placed in a medically induced coma so that we could complete all the investigation we needed to complete,’ said Dr. Adebayo Esan.
Lafontant gave high-fives and shook hands with several cops before being helped into a waiting NYPD van. He had been struck in the head with a metal chair on Friday
Lafontant, 53, was saluted by a large gathering of NYPD cops as he emerged from the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center on Monday afternoon
The medical team later took Lafontant out of the coma as his condition began to improve over the weekend.
‘He also still has very severe injuries, but he no longer needs an acute care hospital,’ Rose said.
NYPD Captain Craig Edelman, commanding officer of Brooklyn’s 73rd Precinct, prasied the father-of-four and called him a ‘tremendous family man,’
He told the New York Post was a ‘mentor for younger officers’ and represents all the qualities that an NYPD officer should have.
He added: ‘He’s an inspiration for all of us. ‘I think we have to thank God for him being alive today. It was a very traumatic incident. He took a lot of trauma in his head and neck area.’
Edelman claimed that Lafontant had a ‘long road’ to recovery, but that he would ‘come back to open arms’ when he eventually returns to work.
NYPD Officer Lesly Lafontant in a photo from his Facebook page. He was placed in a medically-induced coma after an attack by a T-shirt vendor in Brownsville
The incident occurred at this nail salon in Brooklyn. The officers were flagged down after Hawkes allegedly entered the premise seeking a bathroom, before urinating on the floor
Police are seen here Friday night securing the scene after the two officers were injured and Ashun was killed
Hawkes had managed to escape from the scene, but was caught by authorities a short time later.
He had gone into the nail salon, asking to use the bathroom there. When denied, Hawkes allegedly went to the kitchen, locked the door behind himself and then could be heard urinating inside, according to a complaint obtained by the New York Daily News.
When Hawkes left, a salon worker claimed to have seen urine on the kitchen floor.
The employees then complained to the NYPD officers they flagged down that a man had come into the salon and started urinating all over the floor in front of disgusted customers.
A warrant check revealed that Hawkes had an open warrant for criminal mischief.
Ashun (pictured) was said to have been bipolar and his family claimed he sought help for it
Dewayne Hawkes, 26, was arraigned on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing following the incident at Goldmine Nail Salon in Brooklyn, New York
It was the fourth fatal shooting by an NYPD officer in less than two weeks. Some local leaders and advocates have argued the situation could’ve been handled differently.
It was reported that Ashun suffered from mental health issues and his family was seeking help for him.
Officials and community activists, in addition to the family of Ashun, were plannign to gather on Monday night for a vigil in his memory, New York Daily News reported.
His sister, Ama Bartley, 35, told the New York Post on Friday that he struggled with mental illness and tried desperately to get help for him but to no avail.
She said that Ashun had an October 14 appointment with a mobile crisis team from the city Department of Health.
But health workers determined after a short visit that he was not a threat to himself or others, she said.
‘Eleven days later, this is what happens,’ she said. ‘We tried, we really tried to get him help. He was a beautiful soul. He was just battling some heavy things.’
Ashun’s relatives say he was bipolar. He is also said to have had a record of brutally assaulting police.
Ashun was known to run a sidewalk stand selling T-shirts and caps that he hand embroidered.
Police representatives blasted the assault on the officers, the latest such incident in New York.
Last week, two uniformed officers were assaulted from behind while attempting to detain a man in Brooklyn.
Over the summer, numerous uniformed officers had buckets of water dumped on them by unruly gangs.