New Jersey cops broke into a man’s home by kicking the front door down, rousing the man from his sleep and holding him at gunpoint, forcing him down on the floor and placing a knee on his back while shining a flashlight into his face.
Toms River police eventually determined the man, Miquenel Altido, was the homeowner and allowed him back up and left without making any arrests, telling Altido they were responding to a burglar alarm which the homeowner had no idea had been activated.
But in their report, they tried to justify their rough treatment of Altido by claiming they were in fear for their lives because of the usual narrative; that they couldn’t see his hands and that he would not comply and of course, that he resisted arrest.
However, a surveillance video from inside his home proved that to be an exaggeration if not an outright lie. Altido, who had just been awakened by the armed intruders, had both his arms stretched out as four cops came up the stairs with their guns drawn.
NJ Advance Media which published the video earlier today also got hold of a supplemental report written by one of the cops, Toms River Police Sergeant Edmund Mooney, where he was not being very truthful.
After Mooney declared, “Police, you are under arrest, show yourself,” several times, Altidor raised his arms, but Mooney could see only half of Altidor’s body, the report said.
“He raised the one arm which I could see, his left, but began to inch away from me and back down the hallway out of my sight,” Mooney wrote in his report. “I yelled at him ‘police, get on the ground’ but he did not comply. I repeated this command two or three times and he still did not comply.”
The sergeant grabbed Altidor’s left arm and pulled him onto the living room floor, his report said. He said he pushed Altidor on the ground, repeating several more times, “Police, get on the ground.”
However, a video of the incident from Altidor’s home security system appears to show a slightly different version of those events.
The video has no audio, but it’s clear that Altidor does not inch back down the hallway after he sees the police officers enter his home.
Four officers climbed the stairs to the living room, at least two of whom had pulled their guns and pointed them at Altidor. He complies with the officers to get down on the floor, and puts his arms behind his back for them.
Despite Altidor’s compliance, Patrolman Anthony Pacella pushes Altidor down on the ground so his cheek is on the floor. He then takes his knee and presses it on Altidor’s back as he shines his flashlight in his face.
The incident took place on December 28, 2017 and Altido has a pending lawsuit that has been dragging through the court system but now is receiving interest from the local media since there has been a new awareness about police brutality in this country, especially against Black people.
Altidor, a Black Haitian who was working two jobs, was in between shifts, getting a few hours sleep, when the burglar alarm in his home was accidentally tripped, notifying local dispatchers.
Police say dispatchers called the home but nobody answered. They also said they knocked on the door and rang the doorbell but nobody answered.
And they said when they looked through the window, they saw a Black man hiding in the corner whom they determined was “clearly an intruder,” which is when they decided to kick the door down.
The crouching Black man was Altidor’s brother, who was visiting from Haiti and did not speak English. Also in the home were Altidor’s two daughters, Ashley and Mitchnadine who watched their father handcuffed and are suffering emotional distress and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the lawsuit.
As the cops were leaving, Altidor asked if they were going to repair the door they had just broken down.
“That’s your problem,” a cop responded, according to the lawsuit, which you can read here. Watch the video posted above.
