‘NO EVIDENCE’

Buffalo Cops Caught Shoving 75-Year-Old BLM Protester Cleared of Wrongdoing

An arbitrator said officers had no “other viable options” to move septuagenarian Martin Gugino out of their way.

A pair of Buffalo police officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing over a June 2020 incident in which they were filmed pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground during a racial justice protest. The septuagenarian, Martin Gugino, hit his head on the concrete and spent roughly a month in the hospital recovering from skull and brain injuries. On Sunday, local outlets the Buffalo News and Nexstar affiliate WIVB reported that Buffalo Police Department officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe wouldn’t be facing any excessive-force charges over the incident. “Upon review,” arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick wrote in a Friday ruling, “there is no evidence to sustain any claim that Respondents (police officers) had any other viable options other than to move Gugino out of the way of their forward movement.” The arbitrator maintained that Gugino had been acting erratically and refusing to obey the officers, who were clearing the area of demonstrators, according to the Associated Press. The city’s police commissioner said that Torgalski and McCabe, who were suspended without pay and arrested shortly after a video of the incident surfaced online, would be reinstated to duty on Monday.