NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A New York police officer was caught on camera tackling a five-months pregnant woman and throwing her to the ground on her stomach.
Sandra Amezquita, 43, was charged with disorderly conduct, and her husband, Ronel Lemos, with assaulting a police officer after the incident Saturday in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. Amezquita told the New York Daily News she is still having abdominal pains.
"You would think the police would respect a woman that is pregnant," she said Tuesday. "I was afraid something happened to my baby. I am still afraid that something is wrong."
The couple, who have four children, said they went outside shortly after 2 a.m. when they heard their son, Jhohan, 17, calling for help. Jhohan was arrested for possession of a knife and resisting arrest, and Lemos and Amezquita say he was being beaten by police.
Lemos, 50, allegedly hit an officer in the back. He told the News he saw his wife being knocked down.
"The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they're going to kill my wife," he said.
The incident is being investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau. Sanford Rubenstein, a lawyer representing Lemos and Amezquita, said the video was made by the person who taped an officer from the same precinct kicking a street vendor.
"It is incidents like this that account for police-community relations being at an all-time low in New York City," Rubenstein said.
