NYPD Cop Caught On Video Pummeling Teen Girl While Stopping After-School Fight

A New York Police Department (NYPD) officer was caught on camera punching a 14-year-old girl this week.

The incident happened when the officer and a colleague attempted to stop an after-school fight that broke out near Edwin Markham Middle School at around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, the New York Post reported.

Instead of deescalating the brawl, police opted to join the fight, Kyonna Robinson, the girl that was attacked, told the outlet.

"[I] asked the cops, 'What are you doing?' and he pushed me, and then I hit him two times, and then he hit me 11 times," she claimed.

Footage of the police intervention that surfaced on social media showed one of the officers delivering several blows to the back of Robinson's head as other students attempted to pull the teen away.

While the officer who was seen punching Robinson has not been publicly named, sources identified him as Nicholas Scalzo, per the Post.

The New York Daily News, citing a source, identified the officer as Scalzo as well.

The NYPD has confirmed that officers on a foot post near Willowbrook and Forest Avenue intervened in a fight between two girls.

"There was a fight between two girls. We tried to intervene, and it looks like one of the girls tried to stop us from intervening. They tried to handcuff one of the girls. And someone was pulling at them," a spokesman for the force claimed.

The girl who was punched hit the officer first, a police source said. However, the same source acknowledged that the amount of force against the teen was extreme.

"If you watch the body-worn camera, it's just complete mayhem. I guess the officer overreacted. She hits him first, and then he responds by striking her more than once. That's problematic," the source said.

The two girls involved in the fight, one of whom was 12, were arrested and later released without criminal charges.

As a result of the beating, Robinson received a knot on her head, and she still experiences migraines, she said.

Scalzo has since been suspended without pay for up to 30 days, according to police sources.

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau has also started an investigation.

The officers' body cameras are being reviewed as part of the internal probe, New York Mayor Eric Adams, who claimed Wednesday that he was "not pleased" with what he saw on the now-widely shared video of the incident, said.

Scalzo hung up on a Post reporter when reached by phone Wednesday.