The NYPD is investigating an officer filmed shoving a much smaller, female protester to the ground during a demonstration in Brooklyn over the death of George Floyd.
The video, first posted around 8:30 p.m. Friday by Newsweek reporter Jason Lemon, shows a uniformed NYPD officer using two hands to toss the woman to the pavement. She flies like a ragdoll into the curb as others scream “get his badge number!”
According to Lemon, the officer called the protester a “stupid f–king bitch” before throwing her to the ground.
An NYPD spokeswoman said Saturday the incident “is under internal review.”
The video, which has racked up 7.4 million views, appears to be taken a few blocks from the Barclays Center, where protests over Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis erupted in chaos Friday night.
The young woman in the video, Dounya Zayer, has since come forward to debunk “lies” that she spit in the officer’s face.
“This was me, and I want to make one thing clear to all the people that are commenting lies below this video,” she tweeted. “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.”
In a separate video posted from a hospital bed, Zayer said the officer was “walking in my direction” and “I did not get in his face … I was standing in place … and I never put my hands on him.”
Warning: Graphic language
She also posted a second video, purportedly taken from her own phone minutes before the altercation, of the officer walking toward her.
“Get out of the street,” he said.
“Why?” she asks, before he swipes his hand in the direction of her phone and the video ends.
Zayer, captioned the video: “This is the officer. He threw my phone before throwing me. As you can see I was already backing up. All I asked was why.”