Days after a viral video showed NYPD cops tearing a baby from her mother’s arms at a Brooklyn welfare center, a client went berserk at a Manhattan welfare office Tuesday, breaking a city peace officer’s arm and howling “This ain’t f—–g Brooklyn!” — and responding cops declined to get involved, according to an internal report of the altercation obtained by the Daily News.
“We don’t know what to do,” an NYPD officer said upon arriving at the chaotic scene, the report said. Human Resources Administration officers were forced to make the arrest when cops opted to stand down.
The violence erupted late Tuesday at HRA’s Dyckman Jobs Center in Inwood, when client Davaun Fournillier, 27, became enraged at an HRA worker trying to resolve his benefits issues and swept a computer off her desk.
Staff called in HRA peace officers, who entered the area in time to witness Fournillier smashing the computer with his fist. That caused a bloody wound to his hand, and a peace officer captain offered to call EMS.
“F–k EMS!” Fournillier shouted, the report states.
When he was offered the chance to leave the building without being arrested, Fournillier refused, the report alleges. Instead, he shouted, “This is not Brooklyn and my child’s in the waiting area! You’re not f—–g touching …This ain’t f—–g Brooklyn.”
When the HRA captain tried to calm him down, Fournillier allegedly shouted, “I’m punching somebody in the face if I don’t get services!”
The NYPD claims their officers didn’t show up until after Fournillier was arrested, but the HRA report states at some point before the arrest, the HRA captain suggested to an NYPD cop that they take custody of the child and contact the mother.
“NYPD officers responded by stating, ‘We don’t know what to do, do we call ACS (the city’s child welfare office) or not?’” the report states.
The NYPD officers declined to contact the mother or take custody of the child, so the HRA staff stepped in and asked the child’s mother to come to the office, the report states.
When the HRA captain attempted to handcuff Fournillier, he attacked the captain. He grabbed the officer’s right hand “and twisted it causing a snap (and) a popping noise,” the report said.
Fournillier began flailing about but the captain and another HRA officer wrestled him to the ground and cuffed him, the report states.
An NYPD officer at the scene was briefed on the situation “and referred the case to HRA PD.”
“NYPD took no further action and exited the location,” the report notes.
The HRA captain was taken by EMS to Harlem Hospital for treatment of a broken wrist.
A high-ranking police source who spoke only on the condition that he not be named claimed that HRA officers had already arrested Fournillier when NYPD showed up. The official did not address the issue of whether NYPD refused to contact the mother or take custody of the child.
On Wednesday Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, demanded that Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks order that security cameras be installed in every HRA office and that every HRA peace officer be equipped with a body cam “so that never again can they be accused of such malicious lies as our members are now experiencing.”
The mother of Fournillier’s child was called to the HRA office to take custody of their daughter. The report states that she was advised twice to take the child out of the facility so the child wouldn’t witness her father being arrested, which she did.
HRA officers escorted Fournillier to the 34th Precinct, where he was charged with second-degree assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, obstruction of justice, disorderly conduct, harassment and trespass.
On Wednesday, Fournillier was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court and ordered released on $5,000 bail. His public defender lawyer, Sari Vrod, said he’s a part-time stock associate at a Marshalls and is studying to be a barber. Prosecutors said Fournillier had two prior convictions — one each for menacing and “obstruction of breathing.”
The Brooklyn incident Fournillier was shouting about occurred Dec. 7, when client Jazmine Headley got into a confrontation with HRA staff as she was sitting on the floor at a welfare center in Boerum Hill, waiting for hours to resolve a benefit question. Video captured at the scene shows an NYPD cop wresting her 1-year-old son from her arms and then arresting her.
The incident triggered widespread outrage and two HRA peace officers involved in the fracas were suspended without pay. The NYPD took no action against the cops involved, including one who waved a Taser at the gathering crowd and the cop who pulled the baby from Headley’s arms.
Mayor de Blasio has criticized the HRA peace officers but said nothing about the NYPD cops involved in that incident. Headley has notified the city she intends to sue.
Union president Floyd Wednesday again blasted de Blasio and Banks, charging that their quick decision to blame HRA officers for the Brooklyn incident contributed to a landscape that is now undermining their ability to do their jobs.
“Mayor de Blasio and Steve Banks have created an atmosphere for the HRA officers to become punching bags. First, they’re not attending to how long people wait, which is the cause of these problems, and then not supporting our officers,” Floyd said.
At an unrelated press conference, the mayor said the city was looking into what happened, stating, “Any client should never in any way physically attack a worker or hit a computer off a desk. That’s totally inappropriate to begin with. But as for the actions of the city’s employees I’d need to know more before I can comment.”
