A 20-year-old woman allegedly suffered a violent seizure and was rushed to hospital in Brooklyn after being shoved forcefully to the ground by an NYPD officer as she protested the death of George Floyd.
The woman has been identified by others at the scene as Dounya Zayer who has continued to post updates on her condition from hospital and claims she was ‘in no way was I aggressive toward this police officer’.
The incident happened on Friday night close to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn where police arrested dozens of protesters.
It was first shared by Newsweek reporter Jason Lemon who claimed that the officer called her a ‘stupid f*****g b***h’ before throwing the protester to the ground.
Police confirmed to NBC that the officer was being investigated as city officials called for him to be charged with assault.
The woman shown been violently flung to the ground by an NYPD officer was identified by those at the scene as Dounya Zayer, who has begun posting about the attack from hospital
Zayer took to Twitter from the hospital to post several videos to explain what had happened to her.
‘This was me, and I want to make one thing clear to all the people that are commenting lies below this video. I did NOT spit in this officer’s face. I was wearing a face mask. He told me to get out of the street and then immediately threw me out of the way,’ she wrote.
She also posted a video from her own perspective which showed the officers approaching her as she moved backwards down the street, with one of them taking a swipe at her phone.
Whitney Hu, an activist also taking part in the protest and who first posted the video of Zayer, said on Twitter that she was on the way to the hospital after the attack but was forced to wait outside because of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘The cop pushed her so hard at Barclays & she flung back. She is tiny. Now she’s in the ER after a serious seizure. I’m waiting for updates but have to wait outside because of COVID-19. Please keep my protest sister in your thoughts,’ Hu wrote.
She later revealed that the young woman had woken up and was able to speak to her.
The shocking video shows Zayer being flung to the ground by the police officer and lying still for several seconds before eventually holding her head as other protesters rush to help her and call for people to take his badge number.
From the hospital, the protester revealed that she was thrown because she hadn’t moved out of the officer’s way in time after he asked her to move down the street.
The young woman hit the ground where she lay knocked out for a few seconds before beginning to move and hold her head. She says the fall caused a massive seizure
‘I was not rioting, I was protesting,’ she says in the video.
‘I did not even get in his physical space, he was moving in my direction, told me to move and because I didn’t move out of his way in time, he threw me out of the way.
‘He was walking to me, I was standing in place,’ she added.
‘And I never put my hands on him.’
Zayer says the group had been peacefully protesting in front of the officers when somebody from the protesters threw an object like a bottle at the police.
She says this caused the police to ‘stampede’ and she was running backwards when the officer pushed her.
‘If you really want to compare me standing in the middle of the street to the office that killed George Floyd … it’s not comparable,’ she said.
‘I was protesting for a reason and the officers who were at this protest should back down.’
The video was shared widely on social media on Friday night and showed the cop flinging the woman across the street and then continuing to walk on other protesters
Zayer identified herself on Twitter and said she did not touch the officer
She posted a video of her own from a little before the attack which shows the cop approaching
The video of the attack was criticized by city officials who called for action against the police officer.
New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said: ‘This officer needs to be charged with assault. Hard to watch. Brutal and unacceptable.’
He also condemned the widespread police response to the protest in Brooklyn on Friday night.
‘We failed to de-escalate. The NYPD should be easing tensions, not pepper spraying state legislators and shoving peaceful protestors,’ he said, referring to Assemblywoman Diana Richardson who says she was pepper sprayed while peacefully protesting in Barclays plaza.
Dozens were arrested Friday in the second night of violent protests in New York City.
Although the night started peacefully, the protests dramatically escalated. Two state legislators say were pepper-sprayed and one handcuffed.
Friday’s violent video comes after police officers were caught coughing on a group of people in the Bronx on Thursday night.
The officer in the Bronx was shown coughing on a group of people in a video shared Thursday
The group called from his badge number but he walked away and got back into his car
The video shows a cop opening his mouth and pointedly coughing on a group of people without wearing a mask and then walking slowly away.
The group are seen asking for his badge number before the cops climb back into their car.
Police violence was also seen in Baltimore on Friday night where a black woman was knocked to the ground after shoving a white police officer.
The video shows the woman and the officer arguing while others approach.
As she begins to pull away, he walks toward her and she swings for his head before pushing him again.
A second black police officer runs in and takes her to the ground.
A video was also shared in Baltimore on Friday night of a black woman being knocked out by a police officer after she is shown arguing and taking a swipe at another
Violent protests demanding justice for George Floyd spread across the US Friday night, with the CNN headquarters under siege in Atlanta, NYPD officers forced to fend off rioters at a police precinct in Brooklyn and the White House forced to go into lockdown as demonstrators tried to scale the walls.
Looting and fires broke out again in Minneapolis as protesters defied the state curfew and the National Guard failed to keep the city under control, with the Pentagon putting the military police on alert to send to the ravaged city.
This came after three nights of carnage in the city that have seen one suspected looter shot dead, cops forced to flee a police precinct as it was stormed and set alight by rioters and the city left in tatters.
The protests have now reached all corners of America with break-off demonstrations springing up in as the arrest of the white cop who knelt on Floyd’s neck has done little to quell the anger over the black man’s death and the other three officers involved continue to walk free.
Chaos exploded in Atlanta as demonstrators vandalized and tried to storm the CNN building with at least one cop injured while a fire broke out near Centennial Olympic Park.
In New York City, police officers were forced to defend a police precinct in Brooklyn amid fears it would be stormed and torched, while shocking footage showed an NYPD officer hurling a female protester to the ground.
The White House was forced to go into temporary lockdown as protesters tried to scale the walls, battled with Secret Service agents and burned American flags.
It comes after Floyd’s death on Memorial Day while in police custody.
He died after being arrested by four police officers for allegedly trying to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill.
He was seen in a video pleading that he couldn’t breathe as white officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck.
Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with Floyd’s murder.
Floyd’s family has called for a more serious charge to be brought against Chauvin and for the arrests of the other three officers who were fired alongside Chauvin over Floyd’s death – J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao.