Video shows police pulling woman into van; she’s wanted for damaging police cameras, police say
(CNN) — The New York City Police Department responded to a social media video that shows a woman being taken into custody Tuesday, saying she was wanted in connection with multiple instances of damage to police property.
The video shows a woman, identified by the NYPD as 18-year-old Nicholas Stone, struggling while being detained by officers and then bundled into an unmarked gray van. Officers on bicycles appear to be blocking off groups of people at the scene.
Stone’s mother Carly O’Neil says her daughter Nikki, known as “Stickers,” is transgender and while the NYPD “did use her pronoun, they insisted on calling by her legal name,” according to CNN affiliate WCBS.
In a series of tweets, the NYPD said Stone was “wanted for damaging police cameras during 5 separate criminal incidents in & around City Hall Park.”
When the officers from the NYPD Warrant Squad took Stone into custody, they were “assaulted with rocks and bottles,” the department said.
The NYPD’s Warrant Squad uses unmarked vehicles to locate suspects, and the officers on bicycles wearing bright yellow and blue uniform shirts were there to help make the arrest, the NYPD said.
CNN has been unsuccessful reaching Stone and it is not yet clear who her legal representatives are.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was the “wrong time and wrong place,” to arrest the woman. The mayor was commenting Wednesday after a reporter asked him about the video.
He went on to say that New York City is not Portland, Oregon, and that the NYPD are not federal agents. Portland has been the scene of ongoing protests that largely began after the killing of George Floyd and continued after President Donald Trump sent in federal forces around the July 4 holiday in order to protect federal property.
De Blasio also said what happened was “troubling” and not the type of thing he wants to see in the city.
“It is the responsibility of the police, if someone commits a response offense, they need to follow-up. Given the atmosphere in the country and the real concerns people have, it should not be in the middle of an ongoing protest,” de Blasio said.
The mayor will talk to the NYPD commissioner today about the incident because he thinks there was a better way to get this done, he said.
New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board has received a complaint about an incident involving a protestor being taken to a police van on Tuesday and it will be investigated, said board spokesman Ethan Teicher.