Man Tasered By Suffolk County Cops Says His Arrest Was Unjustified
COPIAGUE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Suffolk County police and a Copiague man are telling two very different stories about what happened leading up to his arrest Tuesday night.
Authorities said Jay Gonzalez, 21, was tasered three times as they tried to arrest him outside a deli in Copiague.
1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria With More On The Story
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Gonzalez was screaming, agitated and made an obscene gesture when a female officer, who stopped to investigate, asked him for identification, police said.
Police said Gonzalez threw the ID at the officer.
"Her partner thought that he was going to lunge on her back, so he immediately intervened to prevent that from happening and that's when they fell to the ground and he refused to be handcuffed," Police inspector Gerard Gigante told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria.
That's when Gonzalez was tasered, but he said the tasering and arrest were unjustified.
"I never...even lifted my hands to make a threatening gesture. Yes, I said a couple of things, but don't we all have freedom of speech?" Gonzalez asked.
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Gonzalez said it was the cops who were the aggressors and that he was talked to in a rude way and told he had "no rights."
"The male cop -- he clothes lined me into the car, grabbed me, we scuffled, we went to the ground. I was trying to comply with what he was telling me, but because of his force, I couldn't," he said.
However, police dispute Gonzalez's version of the story.
"It look three officers to control his flailing from kicking and punching. The Taser was deployed to simply handcuff him," Gigante said. "The Taser wasn't deployed until it was clear he wasn't submitting to being arrested and he was trying to push the officers off."
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