How NYPD “De-Escalates” A Situation…

A New York City police officer who responded to a call reporting a distraught teenager repeatedly punched the boyfriend of the boy’s mother, a prosecutor from the Manhattan district attorney’s office said at the officer’s arraignment on Wednesday.

The officer, Christian Zapata, 36, pleaded not guilty to assault in the third degree after he was indicted on the misdemeanor charge by a grand jury in the Dec. 7 encounter. He was released on his own recognizance. His lawyer, Andrew Quinn, declined to comment after the arraignment.

Officer Zapata had recently been promoted to sergeant when he and other officers were called to a Harlem apartment, where Leah Turner, the mother of a 15-year-old with autism, called 911 because she was having trouble calming her son.

When they came inside, Ms. Turner’s boyfriend, Jerome Collins, asked the officers to put on masks, according to court documents and video footage captured by the officers’ body worn cameras.