6/4/2020
@mikedesmondWBFO
Martin Gugino, the elderly Buffalo protester who got knocked to the ground and bled out of his ears, is now suing the city over that ordeal.
The 75-year-old man is suing the City of Buffalo, its mayor, several police officers and the Commissioner … alleging the curfew they imposed last summer amid BLM protests was arbitrarily enforced, and ended up landing him in the hospital with a cracked noggin.
In his docs, Gugino says the 8 PM curfew they enforced at Niagara Square was draconian and frankly unconstitutional, infringing on his right to be there and peacefully protest … as he claims he was doing that day.
Gugino claims mere minutes after the clock struck 8, officers in riot gear began picking and choosing whom they wanted to accost and arrest arbitrarily. Out of fear for other protesters, Gugino says he tried to talk them down, but alleges they screamed, “Push him” … which he says 2 officers then did, with excessive force.
Of course, we’ve all seen what happened next … he stumbled back, and slammed his head into the sidewalk. Gugino says that upon being transferred to a hospital, he learned he’d suffered a concussion and that his skull had been fractured.
After the fact, Gugino claims Buffalo PD tried brushing off his injury as a trip-and-fall — but Gugino says that couldn’t be further from the truth. He claims he was hospitalized for weeks, and that eventually … Mayor Byron Brown copped to what had actually happened.
Erie County District Attorney
Despite this … a Grand Jury declined to indict the 2 officers accused of pushing Gugino.
Gugino goes on to list a number of Buffalo police-involved incidents dating back years that he insists paints a pattern of excessive force and abuse of power. He’s also asking for major damages — punitive and otherwise that he feels will deter Buffalo PD from repeating this type of behavior.