NYC Mayor Adams will visit S.I. school connected to bus stop melee that led to NYPD suspension

Jan. 5—CITY HALL — Mayor Eric Adams will visit the Staten Island school connected to a Port Richmond bus stop melee that led to the suspension of an NYPD officer, he said Thursday.

Logistics on the visit weren't immediately available, but the mayor said he'd be calling on community leaders to join him at I.S. 51 in Port Richmond — the school City Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) identified the students involved in the altercation as being from.

"I'm going to go to Staten Island and I'm going to go visit that school," Adams said during a press conference on end-of-year crime statistics. "I'm calling all of my electeds in that community. I'm calling my religious leaders in that community. Let's get over to that school and find out what's going on."

A video of the incident involving a group of children and two NYPD officers shows one of the cops repeatedly punching a child in the back of the head.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who joined Adams at Thursday's press conference, suspended the officer in question, and the incident is under investigation by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau.

The commissioner said before the altercation caught on camera that someone struck one of the officers as they tried to take someone into custody.

Sewell was reserved in her comments about the officer's actions on Thursday only saying that most people who saw the video would be concerned, but Adams took his opinion on the incident further.

"I was horrified to see the way a well-trained officer would respond in an incident like that," the mayor said. "I believe that officer was wrong, and I commend the police commissioner and Internal Affair Bureau for taking swift action."

While Adams rebuked the officer, he also expressed horror at the nature of the entire incident involving a young girl being jumped by two other children, according to the mayor.

Adams tied it to part of the presentation on end-of-year crime statistics during which NYPD brass shared information that young people are increasingly becoming the victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

"A young girl in that school was being jumped by two other students, and we have to dig deeper into these incidents," he said. "That little baby was going to school and she was being jumped. She was being jumped. We can't normalize this. We can't continue to ignore the violence that is really engulfing our young people."

The bus stop is frequented by students from schools in the area and is "a known trouble spot," a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Advance/ SILive.com.

The incident escalated when two sisters, ages 12 and 14, allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old girl, the source said.

Officers from a fixed post in the vicinity intervened in an attempt to stop the fight.

One of the female suspects allegedly punched an officer in the face and both of the girls who were suspects allegedly resisted arrest, according to the source.

The 12- and 14-year-old suspects were apprehended. The 14-year-old girl was charged with assault and resisting arrest, and the 12-year-old girl received a juvenile report alleging assault, according to the police spokesman.

The NYPD does not release the names of minors accused of crimes.

Police also are not releasing the name of the officer who was suspended from duty.

A police spokesman was unable to provide any information about injuries or hospital transport for anyone involved in the incident.

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