Crime & Safety
Assault Reported At Sunday's Smithtown Protest; Police Seek Info
Two men reported being hit during an altercation, police say, and investigators want video footage of the incident.
SMITHTOWN, NY — Two men say they were hit during an altercation at a Black Lives Matter protest in Smithtown on Sunday, and Suffolk police are investigating. Suffolk County Crime Stoppers is seeking the public's help identifying the person or people involved in what police called harassment and assault, as well as video of the attack.
A cash reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.
Protesters were met with counterprotesters at the march in Smithtown on Sunday. Among a few tense moments where racial slurs were lobbied at protesters, a Long Island man who identified himself as Alejandro, 22, said in an Instagram post that his friend suffered a gash to the neck after they were attacked by counterprotesters armed with bats and nunchucks.
Find out what's happening in Smithtownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Warning: graphic
View this post on InstagramMy name is Alejandro I’m 22 from longisland New York. Today in the town of smithtown longisland about 15 minutes where I live me and 4 of my other friends went to a peaceful black lives matter protest. It was peaceful until my friends and I left the protest group for a some water and snacks. We walked past a very large group of white supremacists. As we were walking past they were yelling racist things to my small group and antagonizing us i decided be peaceful and enlighten them on why we protesting, asking just to have a conversation with them and let them know what we stand for and try to understand where they are coming from. They lured me in saying ok lets talk and as i approached the mob of racists i was sucker punched on the side of my head and then the group started jumping me, my 3 friends and my girlfriend immediately started fighting for me and defending me. They swung on my girl friend and attacked my friends and i with weapons. Hitting us with bats and one was even carrying numchucks and striked my friend in his face/head leaving a huge gash on his head covering him up in blood. They truly started attacking us with no warning, We had our hands up seeking a conversation and they lured us in just to hurt us. The police broke it up and instead of immediately grabbing the people who attacked us with weapons, they grabbed me and my friend group up instead. They didn’t say a word to the white supremacists and let them get away with what happened completely. One of the white supremacists even tried yelling to the cops THAT WE HAD A GUN WHEN THEY WERE THE ONES WITH WEAPONS! The cops forced us to go to the police station right away where they did not care and couldn’t have made it anymore obvious, the officer taking our report said “what do you expect it’s your fault for going don’t you see the news” and than said that “well the paper work is done good luck” practically mocking us and not even acknowledging the fact that we were innocently just walking down the street , and got attacked with weapons ASSAULTED ME AND EVERY ONE OF MY FRIENDS. I have a video of these men with the weapons clearly in their hands and them yelling racist things.
A post shared by iV POKKO (@ivpokko) on Jun 7, 2020 at 6:31pm PDT
Find out what's happening in Smithtownfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Alejandro wrote that he filed a police report, which police on Monday said was being investigated.
Protesters returned to Smithtown on Tuesday evening, where approximately 2,000 people marched in support of Black Lives Matter and against police brutality.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
