Hofstra suspends officer after incident in which student says he was assaulted

Hofstra University suspended a public safety officer who allegedly assaulted a student last month after the student’s friend was ticketed for smoking on campus.

Jiyong Zhang, 23, a graduate student studying business and finance at Hofstra, said in an interview Monday a campus security officer slammed him against a public safety vehicle, grabbed him around the neck and punched him in a Feb. 13 altercation.

Zhang, a Chinese national, said the officer punched him in the face after the two got into the back of the vehicle and Zhang raised his hands while being driven to the university’s public safety building.

“I put my hands in the air because I don’t want him to hurt me anymore,” Zhang said. Zhang said the officer kept grabbing his neck and “punching my face even though I put my hands in the air.”

The punches caused an abrasion on his lip that was later examined by a university doctor, he said.

A video of part of the incident shot by Newsday intern and Hofstra sophomore Victoria Bell, shows Zhang being pushed against the vehicle and making an audible thud before being pushed inside. The incident and the officer’s suspension was first reported by Bell in the Hofstra Chronicle, a student newspaper.

Hofstra spokeswoman Karla Schuster declined to answer questions about the incident or whether Zhang was disciplined. She provided a statement from the university that said, “The university reviewed the matter and took appropriate steps, including a suspension of the officer and additional retraining.”

The video shows the vehicle parked on Meadowbrook Place, a municipal roadway that leads into a university parking lot next to a building called C.V. Starr Hall.

Zhang said the incident began around 3:30 p.m. when he was standing with four friends on campus. One of his friends was smoking, he said, which Hofstra prohibits in that part of campus. Three university public safety officers approached the smoker and issued him a ticket, Zhang said.

At that point Zhang said he told the officers: "Good job, keep doing it.”

Zhang said the officers then turned on him and demanded to see identification, which he said he couldn’t produce because it was in his nearby car. The confrontation then took place, Zhang said.

Bell said she heard the commotion and took out her cell phone to record video.

“I saw a public safety officer push one of the students in the side of the car,” Bell said in an interview. “It was a loud slam.”

Bell followed Zhang to the public safety building and interviewed him after he was released.

Zhang said he tried to report the alleged assault to Nassau County police on Feb. 17 at the Baldwin station, but police wouldn’t take his statement.

A spokesman for Nassau County police said no official complaint had been filed, but that Zhang was welcome to respond to the precinct to file a report. 

Hofstra issued Zhang a verbal warning, Zhang said.

The university’s public safety officer “owes me an apology,” Zhang said, but he said he wants to put the incident behind him.

“I just want to move on,” Zhang said.