A New York City police officer was arrested on Thursday morning and charged with strangulation and attempted strangulation after videos emerged over the weekend that appeared to show him using an illegal chokehold to arrest a man on a boardwalk, police said.
The officer, David Afanador, had already been suspended from the NYPD without pay. Afanador, 39, was arrested at a police station house, the NYPD said. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Afanador’s forceful arrest of Ricky Bellevue, a 35-year-old Black man, on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk in Queens on Sunday was captured on police body-cam videos, which were released by the NYPD, and cellphone videos recorded by bystanders.