Ex-NYPD officer convicted for punching man more than a dozen times in the face during 911 call
A former NYPD sergeant who punched a man in the face more than a dozen times during a 911 call about an emotionally disturbed child has been convicted of attempted assault.
Christian Zapata, 37, won’t serve time for the crime — Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber sentenced him to time served Wednesday after a non-jury trial.
He was acquitted of the more serious charge of third-degree assault, which carries a potential sentence of up to a year behind bars.
Zapata, of the Bronx, allegedly struck 43-year-old Jerome Collins 13 times in less than nine seconds after the man had asked cops to wear facemasks on Dec. 7, 2022.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg later said Collins posed “no immediate danger or physical threat.”
Officers had gone to the Harlem address after Collins’ girlfriend called the cops because she couldn’t calm down her 15-year-old autistic son, according to The New York Times.
That’s when Collins pleaded with the cops to cover their faces, but the officers refused.
The confrontation got heated, and Zapata, then of the NYPD’s 32nd Precinct in northeast Harlem, said Collins was interfering with the medical workers and cops would arrest him if he kept it up.
“You’re interfering with the process, you’re gonna end up under arrest,” Zapata told him, according to body camera video footage released by Bragg’s office.
A small scuffle broke out, and one officer grabbed Collins’ wrists as Zapata launched punches at the victim’s face — all while his girlfriend screamed, “No! no!” in the background.
Two other cops pulled him away, begging the “sarge” to call off the brutal assault.
As the cops cuffed Collins, he told his girlfriend that things would be OK.
“You ain’t gotta’ worry,” he told her. “It’s alright. It’s alright.”
Meanwhile, Collins’ 8-year-old son wept in the background.
“Daddy’s alright! Daddy comes home!” he told the boy.
Collins was charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice, but both raps were later dismissed, the Times said.
The department suspended Zapata and busted him down from sergeant to police officer. He resigned Jan. 3.
“Police officers have challenging jobs and I have the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform, but the use of unlawful force cannot be permitted,” Bragg said Wednesday.
“Holding members of law enforcement accountable when they break the law is essential for public safety and upholding the public’s trust, and I thank our team of prosecutors for their hard work to secure this conviction.”
