Buffalo Police Officers Who Shoved a 75 Year Old Man, Fracturing His Skull, Cleared of Wrongdoing

April 14, 2022 - Written by S.J.

Two New York police officers who shoved a 75 year old demonstrator at a Black Lives Matter rally, have been cleared of wrongdoing and will be reinstated to the Buffalo Police Department.

On June 4, 2020 several dozen Buffalo police officers in riot gear descended on Niagara Square, where a demonstration was being held in protest of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. 75 year old demonstrator, Martin Gugino, approached the officers as they attempted to clear the area. Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe responded by pushing Gugino while the mob of police continued forward. As a result of the shove, Gugino fell backwards, suffering a fractured skull and spending almost a month in the hospital with a brain injury.

The Buffalo Police Department released a statement following the demonstration explaining, “During that skirmish involving protestors, one person was injured when he tripped [and] fell." However, a video of the incident began circulating online, clearly showing officers shoving Gugino. The video along with the police department’s dishonesty prompted public outcry. Advocates expressed anger regarding the officers’ use of force and continued to call for police reform.

Torgalski and McCabe were immediately suspended and charged with assault–a charge which was later dismissed by a grand jury. In response to their colleagues’ suspensions, every member of the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team resigned from the special squad.

Adding to the outrage and division, Former President Donald Trump (who was in office at the time of the shove) took to Twitter the week of the incident, theorizing that Gugino may have been an “ANTIFA provocateur.”

Last Friday, arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick ruled Torgalski and McCabe’s use of force was "absolutely legitimate." Selchick explained, “Upon review, there is no evidence to sustain any claim that Respondents (police officers) had any other viable options other than to move Gugino out of the way of their forward movement.”

In his ruling, Selchick suggested Gugino fell backwards, at least in part, because of his age, “Gugino, after the force was applied to him, appears to have not been able to keep his balance for reasons that might well have had as much to do with the fact that he was holding objects in each hand or his advanced age.”

Thomas Burton, an attorney with the union representing Torgalski and McCabe, the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, called the proceedings a “political witch hunt” and celebrated the ruling in a statement on the BPBA’s website, “Two good cops who initially got thrown under the bus are back to the profession they love and they’re doing it with a clean slate. No criminal charges, nothing administratively. They’re ready to hit the streets and go back to work for the citizens of Buffalo.”

Gugino was not the only demonstrator injured during protests in the summer of 2020. Physicians for Human Rights estimates more than 115 people were shot in the head or neck with kinetic impact projectiles (or KIPs) by police officers in the United States between May and July 2020. This number does not reflect protestors injured in other parts of their bodies or with other uses of force, such as the shove in Gugino’s case.

Gugino continues to fight against the City of Buffalo and its police department in a separate civil lawsuit.