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Man Charged With Attacking Cops During Protests Last Week

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man has been arrested and charged with attacking two NYPD officers during the protests over the Eric Garner grand jury decision last week.

This past Thursday evening, a large crowd of protesters gathered at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at Bowling Green.

Protesters knocked down barricades and a few of them clashed with police. In the view from Chopper 2, one person was seen punching an officer, while another was seen swinging a sign.

Police said it was an NYPD sergeant who was sucker-punched by the unknown man, who ran off after the incident around 8 p.m.

At 10:30 p.m. the same night, a man identified as Yotameli Sayer was taken into custody for allegedly assaulting a police officer at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue, police said.

In the reported altercation between the crowd and police at that site, members of the crowd began running away and a few protesters were rubbing their eyes as if in pain, WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported this past Thursday. One man alleged he had been pepper sprayed.

Police in riot gear diffused the situation, Smith reported.

Sayer was later identified as the suspect in the attack on the sergeant at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, police said.

Sayer was arrested and charged around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, He was charged with assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct in the 14th Street incident, and assault on a police officer and rioting in the Staten Island Ferry incident.

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