From [HERE] Witnesses and the family of a man charged with fighting with a police officer during an arrest claim that he wasn’t resisting while being beaten by police.

The family of Luis Rivera, 34, said Thursday they have between 25 and 30 witness accounts contradicting the police account and will file an internal affairs complaint for use of excessive force. “He surrendered, as a lot of witnesses seen,” said Rivera’s girlfriend, Estefania Cruz. “He never assaulted a cop.” Jewu Richardson, a community organizer, said a large number of witness saw Rivera being manhandled and assaulted.

On the ground, the officer repeatedly punched Rivera in the face, she said Thursday, as she stood outside police headquarters with a handful of supporters and Rivera’s sister. Police say Rivera violently struggled with Officer Roy Davis after fleeing from him. At one point during the preceding chase, Rivera allegedly called upon a man on a bike to hit the officer. The cyclist swung at Davis, striking him in the shoulder and knocking him into a chain-link fence.

Police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman said it was the officer “who was assaulted and knocked down,” resulting in a large contusion to his shoulder.  Rivera, who his under 5 feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds, received more than a dozen stitches, his family said.

Police said Davis attempted to stop Rivera for questioning in connection with an earlier robbery when the man took off running. The robbery victim did not identify Rivera as his assailant. Rivera, however, remains jailed on charges stemming from the pursuit and struggle.

Elsie Diaz, who was at her family restaurant on Davenport Avenue and saw the incident, said she didn’t know why her brother ran. But she said the violent arrest drew a large crowd of people.

Police said the group was hostile to police but not physical. “We were called an ‘ignorant mob’ (by police), the people who witnessed it,” Diaz said. 

Diaz was referring to the initial police press release, which said, in part: “Before officers could locate him, an ignorant mob, sympathizing with the robbery suspect, got too close. The interference was hostile, but remained verbal.”

He also was charged with a parole violation out of Waterbury.



They told their accounts at a cookout outside the family’s restaurant, Esquina Criolla, soon after.

“When it came down to coming out here (to the rally at police headquarters), they’re intimidated,” Richardson said.

Diaz said her brother lost consciousness during the arrest. He was shot as a teenager and is missing part of his skull, so she worried that the officer’s repeated blows could kill him, she said.

“He was the one that did the beating,” Diaz said of the officer.

Richardson said there has been a larger than usual police presence in that area of the Hill neighborhood, which he cast as an attempt to intimidate people who might otherwise come forward about the Sept. 4 incident.