David Afanador
David Afanador (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

By Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press

A New York City police officer who’s been arrested twice for alleged brutality was arrested again Sunday after police on Long Island say he fired a pistol into the Atlantic Ocean while off duty.

David Afanador, 39, was carrying a loaded 9mm Beretta pistol and three loaded 15-round capacity magazines when officers investigating a report of shots fired in Long Beach saw him walking off the beach with three other people around 6:50 a.m. Sunday, police said.

Afanador was charged last year with putting a black man in a banned chokehold while responding to a call at a Queens boardwalk. The NYPD suspended him without pay after that arrest and then placed him on restricted assignment. He was not authorized to carry firearms, police said.

An NYPD spokesperson, Sgt. Edward Riley, said Afanador has again been suspended without pay.

Afanador was arraigned Monday by video in Long Beach City Court on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and prohibited use of a weapon. He was also cited for possession of alcohol, which is banned at Ocean Beach Park, for carrying an open can of Truly Hard Seltzer, police said. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 2.

A woman stopped with Afanador was also accused of firing the pistol into the ocean. She is charged with criminal possession of a weapon and prohibited use of a weapon, police said.

A message seeking comment was left with Afanador’s lawyer.

Afanador, who’s been with the NYPD for more than 16 years, pleaded not guilty last June to strangulation and attempted aggravated strangulation charges after cellphone video showed him putting his arm around a man’s neck on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk.

The man, 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue, appeared to lose consciousness. Bellevue was arrested in an unrelated incident in the Bronx a few weeks later after police say he flashed a box cutter and made anti-gay statements in an attempted robbery.

Chokeholds have been prohibited by the NYPD for years and were banned statewide last year. Afanador is scheduled for a court appearance in that case on Wednesday.

In 2016, Afanador was acquitted on charges he pistol-whipped a 16-year-old boy during a marijuana bust, breaking two of his teeth. The beating, seen on video, continued until the boy dropped to the ground and was handcuffed.

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36 COMMENTS

    • At the Bundy ranch, the criminals were the ones who were attempting to illegally possess taxpayer owned lands.

      A Reagan appointed federal judge had already ruled the Bundys had no right to graze cattle on the land owned by United States taxpayers.

      • The Bundy’s and all their supporters were acquitted. The FBI and cops were charged with murder.
        Look up the outcome.

      • Miner49er your total faith in German national socialist gun control is very impressive. Pol Pot would also be very impressed. And he learned from the French socialsits.

  2. Remember, fellow NPCs: The police are the only ones we can trust to carry assault weapons, which are designed solely to kill the largest number of humans in the shortest time possible.

    • No…. that would be you and your boy lover… freak…. showing the disgusting nature of boy/ man love….. sick m f er

    • There is as muck intellect in that comment as in our current President Vegetable.

  4. Well at least its a step above a desk pop! I remember when I turned 21 I’d jump at any opportunity to show off my piece I’d even manufacture/steer a conversation to pull it out. You have to grow the fuck up and handle yourself when you carry a weapon, ask yourself do you carry and have tendencies for road rage?

  5. Heads up. Another shooting incident in Boulder Colorado. The Dem’s patsies are catching up on their post election backlog. So far 3 dead and 10 wounded. Alleged perp in custody.

    Expect 1-2 a week to put pressure on pending gun control bills.

    • No he used those solid copper bullets.
      I’m just pissed that hes got bullets to shoot.
      Being a NY cop the oceans a proper target, cant hardly miss that.

  8. I’m confused, Long Beach, Atlantic Ocean?
    Perhaps my reading comprehension isnt very good.
    See Jane run, is about as far as I can take it.

    • Senior moment:
      It was , “See Spot run.”
      Jane prostituted herself for apples.
      It’s all coming back now, the smell of fresh pencil shavings and glue.

        • Same here. Pencil cedar shavings and elmer’s glue.

          And the methanol vapors from freshly mimeographed pop quizzes dropped on your desk in front of you…

  9. I fail to see the issue. I can step on my back deck and fire rounds onto my property. i also can go to a local lake, stop my boat and fire into the water, not an issue. Iit’s because of liberals in NY that this guy is in trouble. Chose to live in a free state.

    • “i also can go to a local lake, stop my boat and fire into the water, not an issue.“

      That is not a safe practice.

      Your projectiles can hit the water and skip for a great distances while retaining lethal energy.

      Several years ago, a gentleman wanted to try out his .303 Enfield so he took it out beyond sight of land in his boat and shot at sharks.

      One bullet skipped, and reached the shore with enough energy to kill a woman driver as she passed by on the coast road.

  11. Truely hard seltzer, the drink of outlaws. They were gonna get real crazy with some mimosas after that.

  14. If a suspect wishes to be taken alive, and complies fully with police orders, police are obligated to take him alive and deliver him to the justice system. Apparently he had the opportunity and took it http://www.job.works76.com

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