Over 50 community members, wielding haunting photos of Reyes’ badly beaten face will gather in front of the NYPD’s 83rd precinct
tomorrow to protest his brutal beating by six NYPD officers. Reyes
suffered broken bones in his face and remains hospitalized. No criminal
charges were filed against him.
Reyes, 26, is schizophrenic and
was in crisis early Saturday. His family contacted his social worker,
who called for EMT support. Eight NYPD officers responded. While two
officers prevented the family from intervening, the others closed
themselves inside the apartment with Reyes. His younger sister, 17, was
in the apartment with the officers, hearing him crying "stop hitting
me!" as he was hit and kicked severely.
Reyes was taken to
Woodhull Hospital. A doctor said he is likely to require at least two
facial reconstruction surgeries. He also suffered injuries to his skull
and abdomen.
Reyes’ family will sue the NYPD and press charges
against the officers involved. Two of Reyes’s sisters are members of
Make the Road New York (MRNY). MRNY joins the organization Rights for
Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities in demanding that
Brooklyn Borough Chief Gerard Nelson and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
institute a new system that deploys well-trained personnel to respond
to mental health crisis calls.
Reyes’s beating is the second
incidence in recent months of severe brutality by Brooklyn NYPD
officers against a person in mental health crisis following the
September death of Bedford-Stuyvesant man Iman Morales, who was shot
with a taser by police.
WHERE: 83rd Precinct, Knickerbocker Avenue and Bleecker Street, Brooklyn
WHEN: 11am, TOMORROW, April 14th
Eye witness testimonies by family and neighbors and photos of Reyes’s injuries available.
