A few months after the incident during the George Floyd protests, Gugino told WGRZ-TV that when it comes to Buffalo police, “it’s not a situation of a few bad apples, this is a bad barrel. A [.]
A video from June 2020 showed Martin Gugino, 75 at the time, motionless and bleeding after being pushed to the ground. The footage fueled outrage during a summer of unrest over police violence.
Grand jury votes not to indict Buffalo police officers accused of shoving 75-year-old protester
By Michael Levenson New York Times,Updated February 12, 2021, 12:02 a.m.
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Mike Desmond, a 75-year-old protester, fell to the ground after being shoved by Buffalo, New York, police.WBFO NPR/AFP via Getty Images
A grand jury has declined to indict two Buffalo, New York, police officers who were facing felony assault charges for shoving a 75-year-old protester who landed hard on the ground and seriously injured his head, prosecutors said Thursday.
The episode outside Buffalo City Hall in June was captured on video and widely shared on social media, fueling outrage during a summer of unrest over police violence. The fury only intensified after the Police Department initially claimed that the protester, Martin Gugino, âtripped and fell,â a description at direct odds with the video.
The attorney for the family of Troy A. Hodge, the Lockport man who died after a fracas with the city s police last year, has released a list of demands Hodge s family wants fulfilled before settling a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
Any settlement likely would have to include a cash payment, attorney Joseph D. Morath Jr. said.
But the terms he presented also include the firing of two officers and punishment for two others, new training to prevent future situations like Hodge s and the hiring of Black police officers. Lockport has never had one. Financial recovery is important for (Hodge s) daughter, but that s the second step, Morath said.