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Brooklyn Man Violently Arrested By NYPD Meets With D.A. To Get Charges Dropped

Fitzroy Gayle and his lawyer in talks with the District Attorney’s office.

A Black man who was thrown to the ground by New York City police, then punched and kicked before they arrested him met with the Brooklyn District Attorney to discuss having charges of resisting arrest, police obstruction and marijuana possession against him dropped.

Fitzroy Gayle, 20, was in a park in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood about 7:50 p.m. March 4, when cops received an alert of shots fired in the vicinity. When they came into the park, they discovered Gayle and another individual there, but say the two men ran. An officer confronted Gayle, who asked what he had done wrong. Minutes later, a group of cops ran toward Gayle, pummeling him.

RELATED: NYPD Says Unarmed Black Man Beaten To The Ground Resisted Arrest 'In Panic'
The incident was caught on cellphone video by a passerby, who told BET.com the police confronted Gayle for being in the park after hours. However, the park does not officially close until 9 p.m.

On Wednesday, the New York Daily News reports, Gayle and his lawyer met with the office of Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez regarding the charges.

“With regard to the criminal charges which were brought by the police officers who stomped on him, who threw him to the ground, those charges will be reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office thoroughly,” said attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who is representing Gayle. 

“We are confident that after their investigation, they will not prosecute those charges.”

Rubenstein said prosecutors told his team that they would make a decision on dropping the charges by March 24.
Meanwhile, after a meeting with Rubenstein and a New York City official, Gayle’s mother, Daphne Gayle said her son was “treated like an animal.”
“Something has to be changed because there’s something wrong,” she said, according to The New York Post. “This is a nightmare, we are all in a nightmare.”

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