This archive report was first published on 16 July 2020.
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, New York City's top uniformed police officer, Terence A. Monahan, and two lieutenants were injured in two separate incidents on the Brooklyn Bridge.
The incidents occurred during a Black Lives Matter protest march, which was part of the widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
According to Lieutenant John Grimpel, a Police Department spokesman, the first incident occurred around 9:45 a.m. when Chief Monahan and other officers tried to arrest a person who had jumped onto the bridge's roadway from the adjoining walkway.
As the officers took the person into custody, someone in a purple shirt ran toward the crowd and swung a long, thin instrument twice at the police, causing at least one of the officers to reach for his head as if he had been struck.
The assailant backed away immediately after striking the officers and was still being sought, Lieutenant Grimpel said.
Chief Monahan suffered an injured hand, while a lieutenant and a sergeant sustained cuts on their scalps. A second lieutenant sustained a broken eye socket in a separate incident.
The incidents came on a day when Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a package of bills meant to rein in police abuses, including a ban on chokeholds.
