The family members of a mentally
ill Latino man who was allegedly beaten by six Brooklyn
cops held a rally Tuesday to announce their lawsuit against the city.

Over 50
community members gathered in front of the NYPD’s 83rd Precinct in Bushwick to
protest the alleged beating of Gamalier Reyes, who is schizophrenic.

According
to the family, Reyes, 26 was having a mental crisis on Saturday and they
contacted his social worker, who called for EMT support.

Eight
police officers responded. The family claims that two officers held the family
back while the remaining six closed themselves inside the apartment with Reyes
and then beat him. Reyes’ 17-year-old sister was in the apartment and said she
could hear him crying “stop hitting me” while he was hit and kicked.

Reyes was
taken to Woodhull
Hospital. A doctor
apparently said he will require at least two facial reconstruction surgeries.
He also suffered skull and abdomen injuries.

Reyes’
family intends to press charges against the officers involved and sue the NYPD
for damages. Two of Reyes’s sisters are members of Make the Road New
York, a community
organization that helped plan the protest.

Make the Road and organization Rights for
Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities have joined together in
protesting the incident.

They
demanded in a statement that Brooklyn Borough Chief Gerard Nelson and Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly take steps to ensure that personnel responding to mental
health crises are prepared.

In
September, a Bedford-Stuyvesant man with mental problems died when NYPD
responded to the scene. Iman Morales was shot with a taser as he stood naked
outside his apartment and toppled to his death.