Family Wants Attorney General To Take Over Bronx Police Beating Case
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The police beating of 19-year-old Jatiek Reed, who was allegedly battered with nightsticks and kicked repeatedly by police officers in the Bronx, has brought a call for an independent investigation.
Attorney Michael Warren has asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appoint the state's Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, to take over the case.
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Warren said his 30 years experience in civil rights cases tells him it's next to impossible for a local district attorney to take on cases of police brutality.
Reed, who had to get staples in his head and stitches in his arm, said he still suffers the effects of the beating -- which was caught on videotape and posted on YouTube.
"I'm feeling all right, but I just constantly have headaches, and I have back pain, and when I go to sleep, I really can't even sleep any more cause I constantly have nightmares day after day after day. I have nightmares over and over," Reed said on Thursday.
"He's waking up in the middle of the night having bad dreams about them coming to kill him. You couldn't fathom how I felt going to see him locked up and tears in his eyes telling me, 'Mommy, I didn't do anything,'" said Reed's mother.
Warren calls what happened an unwarranted police assault of an unarmed teenager.
"It reminded me of a scene that you might see on the Discovery Channel where a bunch of lions are devouring a prey that they have brought down after the initial attack and are feasting on the prey," said Warren.
Reed's mother is calling for the NYPD to retrain their officers and conduct psychological evaluations on a regular basis.
"Just because you have authority, you're not supposed to abuse it," she said.
The officers from the 42nd Precinct involved in the incident have been stripped of their guns and shields and placed on modified duty.
