A grand jury on Thursday dismissed felony assault charges against two Buffalo police officers who in June pushed a 75-year-old man during a protest against police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s death, reports The Buffalo News.
Aaron Torgalski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32, in a video posted to social media, were seen shoving Martin Gugino, who fell backward on the pavement and started bleeding.
They pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault and were released without bail. The pair had been facing up to seven years in prison apiece.
"The grand jury voted to 'no-bill' the case, which means they dismissed it," Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. told reporters.
The officers were enforcing a curfew in the city as a result of protests following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Floyd, a black man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in a case that raised an outcry over systemic racism. Footage showed the officer applying a knee to Floyd's neck for over eight minutes.
Gugino was hospitalized with a fractured skull and brain injury for about a month. He said he doesn’t remember the moment he was shoved. But he recalled that police moving toward the crowd were outfitted with helmets, vests and batons.
The case was, from the start, a controversial one, because of the alleged police action and the nature of the protest where it occurred.
Then-President Donald Trump in June suggested that Gugino was an “ANTIFA provocateur.”
“Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment,” he tweeted.
“I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
The lawyer representing McCabe told the Buffalo News he was pleased “that two good cops can get their lives back now after being vilified with a hundred million tweets. The right thing happened here.
"Their two faces went out worldwide as brutal human being. They’re not. They’re two cops with flawless records who can now go back to what they love doing, and that’s helping people,” he added.
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