Shocking video shows NYPD cop Risel Martinez pointing a gun at a bystander for recording him making an arrest, then walking up to that same bystander and punching him in the face minutes later after the arrest was made.
“He held the gun out like he was one of them goddamn gangsters or like a gang member, you know, and saying, ‘Get away, get away,’”said tenant association president Deloris Johnson.
Dressed in plain clothes, Martinez was arresting a man suspected of riding an illegal dirt bike, who later ran inside a public housing building where several people recorded the event.
The violence ensued when two men riding dirt bikes allegedly interrupted a stop and began circling Martinez and an NYPD sergeant who were ticketing the driver of a double-parked Hyundai outside the housing project just minutes earlier.
The two cops then turned their focus to the men riding dirt bikes and the driver of the Hyundai drove away.
Martinez and the sergeant then chased 21-year-old Dayshawn Bettway inside the building and wrestled him to the ground where police claim they struggled to arrest him.
However, according to [__NY1__](http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/criminal-justice/2016/05/20/nypd-officer-on-modified-duty-after-harlem-residents-say-he-pulled-gun-on-man-videotaping-arrest-of-someone-else.html), a witness at the scene stated, “He put his hands up, said, ‘I don’t want no problems.’ Cop punched him in his face, like three or four times, slammed him on his head. That’s when I got the camera out.”
During the arrest Bettway can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe.”
When Martinez noticed the bystanders recording, he drew his gun from his holster and pointed it at them shouting, “back up! I’m not playing! Back up!”
“I thought he was going to shoot,” recalled bystander Ronnie Pinkerton. “First thing I thought, he was going to shoot.”
Another clip, shot just minutes later, shows Martinez walking out of the building and sucker punching 19-year-old Jahnico Harvey, the same bystander Martinez pointed his gun at for recording the arrest of Bettway, and then throwing him to the ground.
“He hit him for no reason; he hit him real hard,” said Pinkerton, who also recorded the events.
Martinez then arrested Harvey, who’d just returned home from college, and charged him with menacing and disorderly conduct.
After being booked into the jail, Harvey was issued a desk appearance ticket and released with a promise to appear at a future court date.
New York State Assemblyman Keith Wright was disturbed by the video.
“For him to just get punched in the mouth, corralled and apprehended like he’s a piece of cattle of some sort, in a rodeo, just makes absolutely no sense.”
Police later learned the Hyundai was stolen and allegedly found marijuana and 25 rounds of ammunition inside the vehicle.
Martinez’s said he only attacked Harvey after he said, “I’m going to kill you.”
However, video depicting Martinez’s version of events has not yet surfaced online.
The crazed cop has not yet been fired.
Instead, NYPD took Martinez’s badge and placed him on modified duties while internal affairs investigates the case.
According to [__New York Daily News__](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-pulled-gun-punched-harlem-man-good-officer-article-1.2645211), Martinez was a so-called rising star who was a top choice for the 32nd Precinct’s Anti-Crime team. Before his badge and gun were taken away, Martinez was expected to be chosen for the NYPD’s Warrant Squad in a few weeks, a high-profile post coveted by many within NYPD.
Below is the CBS news video and below that is a video that apparently includes the dirt bikers speeding down the street.
