PUSHBACK

Elderly Buffalo Man Brutally Shoved by Police Sues Department, City

Video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino, a peace activist, being shoved by Buffalo cops Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski last summer went viral.

An elderly Buffalo man who was viciously shoved to the ground by police last summer is suing the city, its mayor, and the police department after charges were dropped against the officers who pushed him. Video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino, a peace activist, being shoved by Buffalo cops Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski last summer went viral, amid a nationwide reckoning on police brutality. The gruesome clip showed Gugino—who was using a cane to walk—lying face-down on the ground after being shoved, bleeding profusely from his head. Gugino would spend about a month in the hospital with a fractured skull and brain injury, according to Syracuse Advance Media. In a statement shortly after the incident, the police department falsely claimed that Gugino had “tripped and fell.” A grand jury declined to indict McCabe and Torgalski on charges of felony assault last week. “These were not two especially bad officers, the whole system is wrong. They’re all taught to do the wrong thing. That’s the problem that needs to be fixed,” Gugino told a local news station in October.