New York police officer arrested and charged with using illegal chokehold

A New York police officer who allegedly used an illegal chokehold while conducting an arrest earlier this week has been detained and charged with second-degree strangulation, the Queen’s district attorney announced Thursday. 

Officer David Afanador, who was suspended after video of the incident surfaced on social media, will also face a charge of first-degree attempted strangulation. He is expected to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday afternoon.

A conviction for the charges could carry a maximum prison sentence of seven years. 

The charges were filed just weeks after the New York governor and the New York City Council pushed forward policies to criminalize the use of chokeholds by police officers.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on June 12 signed a bill making it a crime when officers use a chokehold or similar restraint that results in injury or death.

“The ink from the pen Cuomo used to sign this legislation was barely dry before this officer allegedly employed the very tactic the new law was designed to prohibit,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “Police officers are entrusted to serve and protect – and the conduct alleged here cannot be tolerated.”

“This police officer is now a defendant and is accused of using a chokehold, a maneuver we know has been lethal,” she added. “This office has zero tolerance for police misconduct.”

AP: NYPD officer David Afanador was arrested today for using an illegal chokehold on Ricky Bellevue, a Black man, last weekend on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk.

Afanador has faced charges before. He once pistol-whipped a teenager and broke his teeth.pic.twitter.com/KHGmx0WVMa

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) June 25, 2020

New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea announced Afanador’s suspension on Sunday just hours after video showed him placing a Black man in a chokehold for about 10 seconds during an arrest at the Rockaway Beach boardwalk in Queens. 

The arrest was initiated after police responded to complaints that a man was yelling at people in the area that morning. Body-cam footage from the officers showed a group of three individuals taunting them after they arrived on the scene. At one point, Ricky Bellevue, 35, asked officers if they were scared, before reaching his hand into a trash can. 

Officers responded by grabbing Bellevue and tackling him to the ground. Cellphone video showed three officers on top of Bellevue as Afanador pressed his forearm against Bellevue’s neck. The footage appeared to indicate that Bellevue lost consciousness after the alleged chokehold was performed. 

Bellevue was arrested on allegations of disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. The Queen’s district attorney’s office said it wouldn’t prosecute Bellevue, The New York Times reported. 

“Even under the most difficult of circumstances, this maneuver, this kind of action, is exactly the kind of police conduct that the NYPD has banned and our State Legislature criminalized,” Katz said. 

Shea said Sunday that the NYPD was conducting a full investigation into Afanador’s conduct. He described the maneuver seen on film as a “disturbing apparent chokehold.”

Police use of excessive force has gained increasing scrutiny following the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody. Floyd, 46, died after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said, “I cannot breathe.”

The NYPD banned officers from using the chokehold in 1993, though officers have still used them over the years. During a 2014 arrest, a police officer performed a chokehold on Eric Garner, a Black man who died after repeatedly saying “I can’t breathe.”

Daniel Pantaleo, the officer involved in that incident, was fired after a 2019 department trial found he used an unauthorized hold. 

The legislation Cuomo signed into law was named the “Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act.” In addition to the state policy, the New York City Council passed legislation earlier this month that makes it a misdemeanor for officers to use a chokehold, regardless of whether it causes injury or death, according to NBC New York.