A video that has gone viral shows subway commuters running for cover as New York City police officers point their guns into the car from outside.
The video then shows a young black man sitting on the subway with his hands in the air as a horde of NYPD cops enter the train and drag him to the ground, piling on top of him as other cops try to keep witnesses with cameras away.
The man, Adrian Napier, 19, was charged with fare evasion.
The incident took place Friday afternoon and police said they pulled their guns on the teen (and on everybody else on the train) because a witness reported him brandishing a gun. They also say he fled into a subway by hopping over a turnstyle when they tried to confront him.
The pursuing cops then “transmitted” his information to cops in the subway, according to NBC New York, who were able to pick the young black man out of a train filled with other black commuters.
But after tackling him on the train and searching him, they found no gun so he was only charged with theft of services in relation to hopping over the turnstyle. The cost to enter the subway is $2.75.
Earlier this year, the city added 500 uniformed cops to combat fare evasion, which is estimated to cost the city more than $240 million in revenue, according to the New York Times.
But statistics show almost 90 percent of all arrests for fare evasion were minorities, according to Gothamist.
Watch the video below.
