Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old Black Lives Matters protester who was shoved to the sidewalk by Buffalo police in June, causing his skull to shatter, filed a lawsuit against the officers and the department.
NBC News reports that Gugino is seeking economic damages and punitive damages "in an amount sufficient to punish them and deter others from similar conduct." Gugino spent a month in the hospital recovering from the skull fracture and a concussion.
The civil suit comes on the heels of a grand jury's dismissal of criminal charges against Buffalo police officers, Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski.
From NBC News:
The complaint says that the police team "yelled out in chorus, 'push him, push him'" after Gugino approached a line of police officers with batons and helmets.
After charges were declined earlier this month, the president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association defended the officers' actions.
"Officers McCabe and Torgalski were simply following departmental procedures and the directives of their superiors to clear Niagara Square despite working under extremely challenging circumstances," the union president, John Evans, said in a statement.
