Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Despite a damning three-second amateur-shot video, members of the Buffalo Common Council are loathe to rush to any judgment when it comes a Saturday night incident on Chippewa Street that saw deputy police commissioner Craig Macy push a female pedestrian to the ground.
The video surfaced Monday afternoon on various social media sites and later, police commissioner Erika Shields said the video was "concerning."
This much is known: Macy - a well-respected officer and considered a "cops cop" - was leading a police effect to quell a series of fights that occurred late Saturday along Chippewa Street.
Sources said Macy was also part of a police task force overseeing the Taste of Buffalo and a Saturday evening city-sanctioned dance party on Chippewa Street that ended around 10 p.m.
Shields, late Tuesday, released Macy's body camera footage to put the incident into context.
"The footage makes it clear that the Deputy Commissioner was leading from the front and responding to an intense physical altercation between multiple individuals including the woman who was pushed back as she attempted to re-engage with other individuals involved in the altercation," Shields said in a prepared statement.
As per standard police procedure, the incident has been set to the department's Internal Affairs Division for further review, Shields said.
Common Council members said they were surprised by the video.
"It's just not in his (Macy's) character," said University District Councilman Rasheed N.C. Wyatt.
Wyatt said he is waiting for a more detailed report to come from either Shields or Mayor Sean Ryan before making any final judgments.
Ditto for Leah Halton-Pope, Ellicott District councilwoman and council majority leader.
"The video, itself, is concerning," Halton-Pope said. "But, at the same time we don't what happened either immediately before or afterwards."
The incident comes six years after two Buffalo police officers were caught on video pushing down local peace activist Martin Gugino - then 75 years old - during a June, 2020 George Floyd protest in front of Buffalo City Hall. Gugino suffered a concussion and other injuries.
Gugino died in March of this year while residing in Tampa.
"We need to see the entire incident, in context, before making an judgments," Halton-Pope said.
