Reuters
- Body camera footage of Buffalo Police officers pushing protester Martin Gugino was released.
- The footage shows three different vantage points of the push and the reactions as Gugino lay on the ground.
- Last month, a grand jury declined to indict Officer Robert McCabe and Officer Aaron Torgalski.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The Buffalo News has obtained bodycam footage of Buffalo police officers pushing Martin Gugino, then-75 years old, to the ground, showing a never-before-seen vantage point of an incident that captured national attention during the summer of 2020.
The Buffalo News obtained more than 16 hours of bodycam footage from the Buffalo Police Department through New York's Freedom of Information Law.
Within that trove of footage, the Buffalo News published views from three different officers in front of City Hall.
"You're using those sticks," Gugino can be heard saying to officers in one of the videos as he walked towards them.
Moments later, two officers are seen pushing Gugino, one with their hand and another with a baton, as Gugino stumbles backward and lands heavily on his head. Each video shared by the news outlet shows a different vantage point of the officers pushing Gugino, and the response.
"He's bleeding," someone can be heard saying.
"He's bleeding out of his ear. Get a medic!" another person says in the video.
Gugino suffered a fractured skull from the push, according to his attorney.
The Buffalo News reported that one of the videos was from Officer Robert McCabe's body camera. McCabe is one of the members of the department's Emergency Response Team who was charged with felony assault following the incident. But last month, a grand jury declined to indict McCabe and Officer Aaron Torgalski, the second officer involved.
In McCabe's body camera footage, there is no audio for the first 20 seconds of the video, until after Gugino is on the ground. The officers were lined up to enforce an 8 p.m. curfew in place at the time, as protests against police brutality swept across the US in 2020.
The original video of Gugino being pushed to the ground, captured by WBFO reporter Mike Desmond, went viral and has amassed over 85 million views.
Last month, Gugino's attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Buffalo and members of the police department.
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