Brooklyn teaching assistant arraigned on Brooklyn Bridge brawl charges

A Brooklyn teaching assistant was being held late Friday on $25,000 bail after being charged with participating in a brawl on the Brooklyn Bridge last month that injured two NYPD officers.

Jarrod Shanahan, 29, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on assault, obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest charges, officials said.

Shanahan, a graduate teaching assistant at The City University of New York, is accused of joining demonstrators in the Dec. 13 brawl. Lts. Philip Chan and Patrick Sullivan were beaten and had to be hospitalized, Chan with a broken nose.

Shanahan is not accused of striking the officers, but acting in collusion with those who did, said defense attorney Jesse Berman.

"They are not charging him with punching the officers," he said.

During his court appearance, Shanahan had bail set but didn't enter a plea, Berman said.

Shanahan was the sixth person to be charged in the melee during a demonstration over the decision by a Staten Island grand jury not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the apparent chokehold death of Eric Garner in July.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.