Brooklyn Woman Claims NYPD Broke Into Apartment, Roughed Up Son
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn mother is accusing the NYPD of wrongfully breaking into her apartment.
The police were trying to catch a criminal, but the woman said they roughed up her son, who had been sleeping.
As CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported, Juwana Newman received a frantic call Wednesday at work: Her 24-year-old son told her the NYPD busted down the front door of their East New York apartment, stormed in and trashed it in an attempt to capture an ex-convict standing on their fire escape.
She said her son didn't hear the cops knocking.
"My son was sleeping apparently when they were knocking on the door," Newman said. "He didn't hear the door knock because he's on very high dosage medication because he was injured about three weeks ago."
Newman said in the process her injured son was roughed up.
"When he woke up, after they were shoving and pushing on him, he woke up very startled, and he's like, 'What is going on?'" Newman said. "They're like, 'You don't hear me knocking on the door?' And they dragged him out, yanked him up and put him out in the hallway."
But the NYPD said that never happened. It claims police made no contact with anyone inside Newman's apartment, that officers didn't even know her son was home at the time.
Newman is also outraged that officers broke the lock on her door.
But police said they had to -- in order to get the man on her fire escape. The man, wanted for parole violations, was threatening to jump, they said.
Parole officers called the NYPD for backup.
Police said they didn't ransack Newman's apartment and instructed the super to repair the lock and bill the city.
Newman said she has filed a complaint against the police in the 75th Precinct and the NYPD.
The NYPD is standing by its actions and says it was saving a life by breaking into the Newman's apartment.
