A New York Police Officer is under investigation over claim that he called a Brooklyn woman a “f*cking dyke” before assaulting and choking her during an arrest earlier this month.
Stephanie Dorceant, a 29-year-old aspiring filmmaker, said that she was heading back from a concert with her girlfriend when the altercation with the off-duty cop took place.
According to Dorceant, they encountered the man upon exiting a cab, and walking towards their apartment when he bumped her from behind.
When she asked the officer if he was okay, he allegedly responded, “Mind your own business, you fucking dyke.”
Words were exchanged and Dorceant claims that the off-duty NYPD officer, who was later named as Salvator Aquino in court documents,proceeded to punch her several times, choke her, and scream more gay slurs at her. She claims that she bit the officer to try and get him to stop the assault.
“When he had his hands around my neck I truly thought I was going to die,” Dorceant said in a statement. “I could not breathe.”
Aquino reportedly yelled at the cab driver, who was still at the curb, to “call the cops.” When uniformed officers arrived at the scene, Dorceant said that they wrestled her to the ground and put their knees on her neck, shoulders, and back.
The women were handcuffed and taken into custody. Dorceant was later taken to the hospital before being transferred to central bookings, according to the Gothamist. She spent two days in jail, including a whole day on New York’s notorious prison at Riker’s Island.
The NYPD’s internal affairs department and the civil rights bureau of the Brooklyn district attorney’s office have both launched investigations.
The officer alleges he was breaking up an argument, when he was attacked by both women. Dorceant says she was the victim of a brutal hate crime.
H/T: Vice