NEW YORK — Two Buffalo cops have been cleared of wrongdoing for shoving a 75-year-old demonstrator to the ground during a George Floyd protest, leaving the activist hospitalized for weeks afterward with a fractured skull and a brain injury.
The incident, captured on a viral video during a June 2020 demonstration over Floyd’s death beneath a Minneapolis police officer’s knee, sent Martin Gugino tumbling to the pavement as police enforced a local curfew.
But arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick concluded Friday that Officers Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski were justified in their actions.
“There is no evidence to sustain any claim that (the officers) had any other viable options other than to move Gugino out of the way of their forward movement,” wrote Selchick. “The use of force employed by (the officers) reflected no intent on their part to do more than to move Gugino away from them.”
Buffalo police did not return an email about whether Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia followed through on his plan to reinstate both officers to duty Monday.
A phone call to Gugino was also not returned, but his lawyer said the finding will have zero effect on the man’s pending lawsuit against the city of Buffalo.
“We are not aware of any case where this arbitrator has ruled against on-duty police officers,” attorney Melissa Wischerath told the Buffalo News. “So his ruling here on behalf of police was not only expected by us, but was certainly expected by the union and the city who selected and paid him,”
The video spread like wildfire via social media, with the officers both seen pushing the elderly man after he ignored their orders to move. The pair, initially arrested and suspended without pay, were cleared last year by a grand jury that declined to indict the officers.
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