Video shows police pushing 75-year-old man to the ground (File)
New York:
President Donald Trump tweeted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old protester in Buffalo who was pushed by the police and seriously injured in a march sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Trump has written that the protester, Martin Gugino, could be a member of the fascist anti-faf movement, which the president and other Republicans accused of violence during the protests.
Trump presented no evidence other than a report from pro-Trump One America News Network, which also cited no evidence.
“Buffalo protester urged by police could be ANTIFA provocateur. Martin Gugino, 75, was repelled after appearing to scan police communications to blacken equipment. @OANN I watched , it fell harder than it was pushed. Could it be a configuration? “Trump tweeted.
Two Buffalo police officers were charged with criminal assault after a viral video showed one, Constable Aaron Torgalski, 39, pushing Gugino and the other, Constable Robert McCabe , 32, walking past his motionless body after falling on the sidewalk. As Gugino falls, his head hits the sidewalk and streams of blood, according to the video.
Trump’s station appeared a few hours before the funeral of Houston for Floyd, an African American who died on May 25 after a white police officer in Minneapolis pinned him with one knee for nearly nine minutes.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was “disgusted” with Trump’s tweet and urged the president to apologize.
“He accused this man of being associated with antifa – no evidence whatsoever. No fact, just an assertion,” Cuomo said in his daily press briefing. “I mean, if there has ever been any objectionable and stupid comment, and from the President of the United States,” said Cuomo, a Democrat.
“At this moment of anguish and anger, what is he doing? Pour gasoline on the fire … He should apologize for this tweet.”
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, Erie County District Attorney, who is prosecuting the police, declined to comment on Trump’s tweet about Gugino, who remains hospitalized.
“This case is going to be tried in court before someone in a black dress and I have no further comments,” said McCabe’s lawyer Tom Burton.
Lawyers for Torgalski and Gugino did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
