NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — An NYPD sergeant who attacked a man during an arrest on the Upper West Side and punched a detained suspect so hard he required stitches in Harlem has been indicted for assault, prosecutors said Thursday.
Sergeant Phillip Wong, 37, of Brooklyn, was charged with third-degree assault and third-degree attempted assault on Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Wong is a 15-year veteran of the NYPD, the DA’s office said. He is currently suspended without pay, the department said in a statement provided to 1010 WINS.
Prosecutors say Wong was supervising officers at the 96th Street station on the Upper West Side on April 29, 2020 when one of them spotted a man punching another passenger on a train.
As the officers were arresting the man, the man shouted anti-Asian slurs and obscenities at Wong and kicked him in the leg, according to prosecutors.
After the man kicked him, Wong and another officer pulled him to the ground, prosecutors said.
As Wong knelt on the man’s back, the man shouted, “I can’t breathe" — to which Wong responded, “I don’t give a f--- if you can breathe or not!” according to prosecutors.
Wong also bounced his knees on the man’s back, the DA’s office said. The man was hospitalized, but didn’t suffer any physical injuries, prosecutors said.
Months before the Upper West Side incident, on October 4, 2019, Wong and two other officers were escorting a handcuffed man into a holding cell at a precinct in Harlem when the man kicked the door and began spitting at them, according to prosecutors.
Wong pushed the other officers aside, opened the holding cell door and punched the man in the face, prosecutors said. The man was taken to the hospital, where he received stitches to treat a cut above his right eye, the DA’s office said.
“As alleged, this sergeant grossly violated his training — and the law — during the arrests of these two individuals, whose conduct did not justify these violent responses,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.
Wong’s attorney information wasn’t immediately available Thursday.