Buffalo police officers suspended for shoving protester to the ground charged with assault

Buffalo protest.
(Image credit: Mike Desmond/WBFO via AP)

Two Buffalo police officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski, were both charged with one count of second-degree assault Saturday, prosecutors said, after they were seen on video Thursday shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground during a protest against police brutality. The officers have pleaded not guilty and were released without bail, The Associated Press reports.

The video sparked outrage across the country, and criticism intensified when the Buffalo Police Department said the protester, Martin Gugino, tripped and fell. Gugino, described as a longtime peace activist, was hospitalized with a head injury resulting from the fall. He is now in "serious, but stable condition" and is "progressing in his recovery."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.