Soldier punches ‘mentally ill’ black man who ‘spat on his car’ and restrains him in front of furious crowd
TENSE video taken on Thursday shows a soldier in uniform repeatedly punching a man in the face in New York. The footage shows the soldier, dressed in military fatigues, attacking the victim who may have been mentally ill, according to Said Hamideh who filmed the fight. According to DailyMail.com, the incident unfolded on Thursday afternoon […]
TENSE video taken on Thursday shows a soldier in uniform repeatedly punching a man in the face in New York.
The footage shows the soldier, dressed in military fatigues, attacking the victim who may have been mentally ill, according to Said Hamideh who filmed the fight.
According to DailyMail.com, the incident unfolded on Thursday afternoon in upstate Buffalo.
A spokesperson for the New York National Guard confirmed to The Sun on Friday, citing a local news report, that the man in the video is a soldier.
Colonel Richard Goldenberg identified the man as Richard Hy, who he said is a Buffalo police officer.
He said Hy is also “a traditional member of the New York Army National Guard” who “was in a military duty status on Thursday.”
The Buffalo Police Department said they’re investigating the incident.
The military man is seen approaching the man on a sidewalk before punching him in the side of his face.
Hy then sits down on the man’s chest after forcing him to the ground.
A group quickly forms as people shout at the soldier, telling him to stop, while the soldier shouts for someone in the crowd to call the cops.
The man stuck underneath the officer’s body, who is black, can be heard shouting: “Get the f**k off of me.”
One person nearby questions whether the soldier is “a white supremacist.”
But another bystander in a red shirt, who appears to be on the phone, shouts: “Don’t make it about race! It is not about race!
“You do not know what’s been happening all day. At least understand the facts before you open your mouth. You have no business here, back away,” he later says.
The man on the phone tells the growing crowd of witnesses that the man who the soldier is holding down caused problems earlier, before the incident unfolded.
A woman then begins shouting at the soldier for attacking the man “for no reason.”
The man on the phone claims the man spat on the soldier’s vehicle before he was punched.
Another man at the scene shouts at the soldier: “You think you’re entitled because you’re in the Army? Go f**k yourself, dude.”
Hamideh told DailyMail.com he didn’t witness any earlier incidents, but did see the man shouting at people in the street before the soldier punched him.
He said that a waitress in the neighborhood told him the man who was punched had been causing problems in the area.
“He apparently flashed some girls a few days before,” Hamideh said.
“He was causing problems in the neighborhood that day too. He was shouting incoherently in the street, and people were calling out from the balconies for him to leave.”
Hamideh added that he thinks the argument started between the two people after the man allegedly spat on the soldier’s car.
Hamideh said the man called the apparent military soldier a “p***y” and apparently shouted disparaging remarks at him.
Hamideh asks the man, still underneath the soldier, if he can breathe OK.
“Oh yeah man, I’m good,” the man says while smiling. “I’ve been waiting for this.”
Another witness, a black man in a wheelchair, is seen holding a baseball bat, before shouting: “Are you hitting people? Are you hitting our people?”
The soldier replies: “Oh yeah. I hit him.”
When accused of being racist, the soldier tells the witnesses: “I see a man as a man.
“He’s yelling and shouting at people in the street, then he comes over and spits on my car. Then he turned around on me. I’m not going to let him hit me first, man.”
Once cops arrive at the scene, the soldier walks away, but the man who was on the ground stays put.
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It’s not clear what happened after the video stopped.
Per the Investigative Post, Hy has been suspended twice by the Buffalo Police Department since 2016, which he joined in 2012.
He was also charged in 2016 with choking and harassment after he was accused of headbutting a teenager while off duty.