
An ex-Marine is filing notice of a $5 million suit today against the NYPD, claiming two undercover cops beat him up and threw in the back of an unmarked van during an illegal stop-and-search last week, reports the New York Daily News.
According to former Marine sergeant Omar Rendon, 25, he was sitting in his car in a parking lot in Queens while on his lunch break when an unmarked blue van pulled alongside him.
Rendon said two men in plainclothes said, “Police! Get out of the car,” before reaching through the window to unlock the door. The veteran said he was asking who they were as he was violently yanked out of the car.
According to Rendon, when he asked to see their ID’s, one cop punched him in the face, after which they went through his pockets, handcuffed him, and threw him into the back of the windowless van.
“I told them, ‘I’m a Marine, what are you guys looking for?’” Rendon said. “I thought it was a kidnapping.”
According to Rendon the cops searched his car before releasing him twenty minutes later and then driving off without offering any explanation.
Rendon said he followed the van and snapped a cell phone photo of the its license plate which was later traced to a leasing company in Connecticut used by the Queens NYPD Narcotics unit.
After reporting the incident, Rendon was taken to Long Island Jewish Medical Center for treatment of bruises on his face and a possible deviated septum, according to his attorney.
“This vicious attack is a complete violation of all the rights this decorated Marine risked his life to preserve,” Rendon’s attorney, Scott Rynecki said.
According to department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau inspections unit, they are close to identifying the two officers involved in the incident.
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