Brooklyn cops investigated for bloody liquor store arrest

There is continued fallout Thursday following the video showing two plainclothes officers in Brooklyn get physical with a man whom they tried to arrest on suspicion he was buying drugs.

The undercover drug sting in Boerum Hill on Tuesday afternoon was captured on cellphone video, in an 8-minute clip now with more than a million views since it was posted to social media.

While the man, identified by his family as Timothy Brown, was charged with resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration, he was not charged in connection with the alleged drug deal because it was later determined he was not involved.

The video shows two NYPD officers beating a customer inside BK Wine Depot, a liquor store at Hoyt and Baltic streets, while other customers can be heard pleading with the men to stop. One of the officers is seen stomping on Brown as he was being handcuffed near a pool of blood.

The woman who recorded the attack on her phone says she should’ve done more.

“I’m so mad at myself that I didn’t throw my body against him to protect this man,” Abelee Moran said Wednesday.

The NYPD said those plainclothes officers identified themselves as members of the NYPD and attempted to arrest Brown, who they believed fit the description of a suspected drug dealer’s associate. The department has since confirmed he was not involved in the drug deal.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said announced it declines to prosecute Brown on charges of resisting arrest and obstruction of government administration.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged the footage in a post on X.

“The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. Officers should never treat a person this way. The NYPD is conducting a full investigation into this incident,” the mayor said.

The man who was beaten was out of the hospital Wednesday night, according to his mother, who told NBC New York over the phone that she wants justice for her son — and wants the officers fired. Other groups were rallying behind the family as well.

“I feel like everybody saw police beating a man like it was a video from the 1950s or the 1960s. The only problem, it’s 2026,” said Hawk Newsome, of BLM New York.

In response to the video, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association (DEA) wrote that “NYPD detectives put their lives on the line daily, doing the dangerous work politicians would never have the courage to do. Narcotics detectives arrest you and tell you to put your hands behind your back and  don’t comply, what do you think happens?”

The statement from DEA President Scott Munro concluded by saying all the facts need to come out “before anyone rushes to judgement.”