Police officers are reportedly under investigation for releasing a former inmate who allegedly violently beat a 60-year-old woman in a New York City subway station after footage of the brutal attack went viral.
“This incident remains under investigation,” a spokesperson for the New York Police Department (NYPD) said in a statement to the New York Post on Tuesday, after a source familiar with the matter confirmed to the media that an investigation was underway by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The Internal Affairs Bureau was opened.
Footage of a brutal attack at a New York City subway station went viral on Tuesday after a worker filmed a man identified as ex-convict Norton Blake, 43, hitting a 60-year-old woman with her own cane hit. , American media reported.
For a long minute we can see the man violently punching 60-year-old Laurell Reynolds more than fifty times in the head, stomach, arms and legs before continuing the attack with punches and belt.
As the sexagenarian told the New York Post, the man began beating her after ordering her to back off and insulting her as she tried to climb the stairs with her walker.
“He really started insulting me. Then he pushed me to the ground, hit me with the stick and threw me to the ground… He took my walker and hit me. I tried to keep him away from me. […] There was nothing I could do,” the woman reportedly said.
However, when the police arrived at the scene, Norton Blake gave them a false name and offered a different version of the matter, to the point that the police told the woman that if they locked up the man, she should bring her too, that’s what she would have stated.
“He could do this again to someone else’s father or mother because they didn’t lock him up,” said his daughter Lashanne Reese, 41.
However, it is not clear whether the man was released before or after police had access to surveillance cameras, the New York Post said.
Norton Blake has reportedly been arrested nine times for various crimes, including drug possession, assault and trespassing.