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Alleged Cop-Punching Demonstrator Arraigned, Held On Bond

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn man accused of assaulting two police officers during separate protests in response to last week's Eric Garner grand jury was ordered held on $20,000 bail Wednesday night.

Yotameli Sayer, 22, was arrested Thursday night for allegedly assaulting a police officer at 14th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, police said.

Earlier that evening, he also sucker punched a sergeant during a demonstration at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Manhattan and fled, police said. The incident was captured on video by Chopper 2.

Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer (right) appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. At left is his defense lawyer, Travis Talbot. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer (right) appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. At left is his defense lawyer, Travis Talbot. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer (right) appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. At left is his defense lawyer, Travis Talbot. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)
Yotameli Sayer
Yotam Sayer appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. Sayer is charged with hitting a police officer during a protest. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News)

Police connected the two incidents using photos on social media, arresting Sayer in connection with the Staten Island incident Tuesday.

"That young man ... he's the type of character we're talking about that is taking away from the significance of these marches, that he's out there just to engage in baiting the police, out there quite obviously to attack the police," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said. "So I'm very fortunate that the detectives were able to put that thing together very quickly and identify him and arrest him."

Sayer was arraigned in one of the incidents Wednesday, CBS2's Dick Brennan reported. In all, Sayer is charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer and one count each of resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and rioting.

Last week, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict a white police officer who placed Garner, an unarmed black man allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, in an apparent chokehold moments before he died. The grand jury decision touched off days of protests nationwide, including throughout New York City.

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