Complaint #202006463,
September 23, 2020

Summary

On September 23, 2020, at approximately 8:50 p.m., at West 172nd Street between Inwood Avenue and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, [redacted] was sitting inside his parked vehicle. [redacted] and [redacted] were also in the vehicle. [redacted] and [redacted] were standing beside the vehicle. The six men were hanging out in and around the vehicle, drinking alcohol, and smoking marijuana. A large number of 44th Precinct officers arrived at the location in response to a 911 caller who reported seeing a man place a firearm beneath [redacted] vehicle, including Sergeants Felix Acosta and Juan Burgos, Detective William Cullen, and Police Officers Michael Meneses, Florian Gega, Michael Sambrato, William Garner, Jeuri Paulino, Jorge Flores, Wesam Isaac, Safayath Jamil, Rochard Luna, and Rieguy Fernandez. Sgt. Acosta approached the vehicle and used the phrase, "Holy shit," twice while speaking to [redacted] and [redacted] (Allegations A-B: Discourtesy, [redacted]). Sgt. Acosta initiated a stop of all six men, directed officers to frisk them, and frisked some of them himself (Allegations C-N: Abuse of Authority, [redacted]). Sgt. Acosta also searched [redacted] vehicle and supervised other officers doing so (Allegation O: Abuse of Authority, [redacted]). The officers did not locate a firearm during the incident and did not arrest or issue summonses to any of the men. Sgt. Acosta failed to provide RTKA business cards to all six men (Allegations P-U: Abuse of Authority, [redacted]). Read report for details.