Javier Payne defines being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 14-year-old was hanging out in front of the Hookah Shop at 11:00 pm this past Saturday night when two NYPD officers decided to come up to him and a 13-year-old friend for a routine “stop and frisk”. This is a routine yet extremely controversial procedure where New York City police are free to stop anyone at any time for no reason and frisk them for weapons. Payne was frisked after he had an altercation with an older man on the street. That is when the incident got ugly.
Witnesses say the police put Javier Payne in handcuffs and then threw him through the Hookah Shop’s plate glass window.
Payne was considered under arrest at that point, and despite being injured and bleeding from just going through a plate glass window, the police wouldn’t even remove his handcuffs. They did call the ambulance squad so Payne wouldn’t bleed to death on the street, but they neglected to tell them that Payne was underage or suffering from critical injuries which would have necessitated the ambulance getting to the scene faster.
An astonished city employee who saw the incident told reporters:
“He looked like a young man who was facing down his own mortality. This is a kid who was staring at his own doom. He looked like he was going to die. And if he didn’t get help when he did, he would have.”
When the EMTs at the scene saw the extent of Payne’s injuries, they rushed him to Jacobi Medical Center while Payne was screaming:
“They threw me through a glass window and now I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”
Payne’s mother said when she arrived at the hospital her son told her, screaming:
“Mommy, Mommy. The cop, he pushed my head through the window while I was handcuffed, Mommy, he pushed my head through the window.”
An NYPD spokesperson would give no more details other than that two boys, ages 13 and 14, were arrested in front of the Hookah Shop and charged with assault, resisting arrest, and obstructing government officials.
An NYPD spokesperson said only that two teenagers were arrested, ages 13 and 14, and that officers charged both with resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration, and assault.
Oddly enough, there is no mention in the police report about how Payne was injured.
Multiple witnesses saw the event and were completely floored as to the behavior of the cops. Jose Perez, who lives in the area, told the media:
“I came out and saw the the glass and the blood — it was everywhere. Thank God he is going to make it. I didn’t know he was just a kid, a young guy like that. It’s a total shock to me. Why would they do that?”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made the controversial “stop and frisk” procedure a big part of his campaign, vowing to the end the practice. He claimed it was overly intrusive and in practice police tend to overuse it against blacks and Hispanics. Since his election, he has taken no real action on the issue.
The police officers in question have not been brought up on charges, nor has there been any investigation initiated concerning the incident.