An unidentified man in Bedford-Stuyvesant was filmed being repeatedly punched in the face by an NYPD officer during a sidewalk encounter near Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street.
Rev. Conor Q. Foley recorded the incident and said the force appeared unprovoked. The video shows the officer grappling with the man, forcing him against a wall and striking him multiple times in the face while another officer stands nearby.
Foley identified the officer using force as Officer Forbes and the second officer as Officer Apollon.
The reason police approached or detained the man has not been established in the material available. His identity has not been publicly confirmed, and no arrest outcome or charges have been established in the record gathered for this wire.
Public complaint records associated with an Officer Elijah A. Forbes, badge 18342, assigned to the 79th Precinct, include prior civilian complaints. One 2025 complaint involved an allegation of physical force and was later withdrawn. A July 2026 complaint alleged discourtesy and was closed under the CCRB’s strategic allocation process.
The video leaves one fact unmistakable: a man was repeatedly punched in the face by an NYPD officer on a Brooklyn sidewalk.
What remains unresolved is why police confronted him, what happened after the footage ended and whether the department has opened any separate review of the force captured on video.
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