New Videos Contradict NYPD Account Of Lead-Up To Times Square Attack On Cops

Police said Yohenry Brito was disobeying a lawful order to disperse when an officer tried to arrest him, triggering a melee with nearly a dozen men. But footage released today shows he was walking away.

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Newly released video from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg appears to conflict with the police account of an interaction with a group of migrants that quickly escalated into a melee that triggered nationwide outrage.

The DA released the footage three hours after a press conference on Thursday where Bragg announced six new indictments in the Jan. 27 attack. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny had said the attack began when officers asked a group of men blocking the sidewalk outside a West 42nd Street migrants shelter to disperse.

“Everybody disperses except for Mr. Brito,” Kenny said, referring to 24-year-old Yohenry Brito, who was indicted earlier in the week and is being held on Rikers Island on $15,000 bail. “He turned around and got confrontational with the police officers. He refused a lawful order.”

But the newly released video footage appears to directly conflict with that account.