An NYPD officer with nearly 20 years on the job is now sitting without his gun behind a desk after he was caught on camera watching his boss take a brutal beating on a subway car in the Brox.
On November 11, Police Officer Manual Morales watched from the platform as two men savagely attacked Lt. Gypsy Pichardoat the 238th Street No. 1 train station, the New York Post reports.
NEW: An NYPD officer has been put on desk duty and had his gun taken after he did nothing as his boss got beaten by two thugs in a Bronx subway.
Officer Manual Morales and Lieutenant Gypsy Pichardo responded to a report of a knife fight.
According to a video clip of the… pic.twitter.com/qgTLupq1xo
— X Posterity (@NewXPosterity) November 18, 2023
A reported knife fight at around 9 p.m. brought the officers to the scene. After ordering the thugs off the train, Pichardo was allegedly attacked. In the video, he can be seen receiving blows to the body and face.
“When it was all said and done, the lieutenant was slashed with a box cutter over and under his eye and had to be rushed to a hospital,” PIX11 reported.
“He did sustain some serious injuries to his face, including just about eight stitches to his face. He’ll be fine,” Chief Michael Kemper, NYPD’s head of transit, said. And the two individuals that were arrested for that — hopefully, there’s strong consequences on them.”
(Video: YouTube)
“Morales, who made $144,986 in 2022, was suspended two days later, records show,” The Post reports.
According to an NYPD spokesperson, “The officer is currently modified pending an ongoing internal affairs investigation.”
“The lieutenant is recovering at home from his injuries,” the spokesperson said, adding that Morales’s gun was taken away.
“That’s an act of cowardice,” a veteran police officer who viewed the footage told The Post. “He shouldn’t be on the job if he’s not going to help other officers.”
Seeing Morales standing by while Pichardo was being beaten is “embarrassing,” another longtime cop said.
“He oughta retire now,” the officer said. “Apparently, he didn’t even call for help. He claims he did but there were no radio transmissions. He didn’t have his body camera on.”
Another senior police officer blamed “City Council rules that dictate how cops can make arrests and the Civilian Complaint Review Board for taking cops to administrative trial for doing their jobs,” according to The Post.
“I’m not saying what he did is ok,” the officer said, “but they made it this way.”
“Nobody wants to put their hands on anyone anymore,” he noted.
A look at Morales’s record suggests this isn’t the first time he’s been in trouble.
“Morales has had four complaints and 11 allegations lodged against him since he joined the NYPD in 2004, records show,” The Post reports. “One complainant was uncooperative, five complaints were withdrawn, four were unfounded and one was unsubstantiated, the record shows.”
Meanwhile, two men — Marquise Webb and Brian Innocent, both 24, — were arrested for the alleged beating and charged with assault on a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon, resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.
The suspects were held on $40,000 cash bail or $120,000 bond and sent to Rikers Island.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.