A Brooklyn man beaten bloody by a pair of cops in a liquor story in a case of mistaken identity is planning to sue the city for $100 million, according to legal documents.
Timothy Brown, a 46-year-old home-health aide, told reporters at a press conference with his lawyers Tuesday that he was just buying a bottle of wine after work when a pair of narcotic cops informed him he was under arrest — then wailed on him in a graphic caught-on-camera beatdown.
“I was brutally beaten for no reason,” Brown said, adding that when he now sees a police car on the street, he “fears for his life.
“What happened to me should never happen to anyone else — it was wrong, it was disgusting, my life will never be the same,” Brown said.
His lawyer, Derek Sells, said, “The NYPD — their job is to serve and protect.
“The only thing that they served was a beat-down to Mr. Brown, and the only thing they tried to protect was their illegal conduct,” said the lawyer, chair of The Cochran Firm.
Sells said Brown’s forthcoming $100 million lawsuit “is meant to punish those officers.
“We want to take everything from those police officers, just like they took the dignity away from Mr. Brown,” he said.
The two detectives who beat up Brown allegedly told him he was under arrest because he wore green shorts, matching a drug dealer they were seeking.
Brown — who appeared at the press conference with his mother Donna — struggled to walk with a cane and had his left arm in a sling Tuesday.
Donna said she was “really disgusted” that nobody from the city had reached out to her and her son in the traumatic aftermath.
Officials from City Hall and NYPD declined to comment Tuesday.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani previously wrote on X, “The violence used by NYPD officers in this video is extremely disturbing and unacceptable.
“Officers should never treat a person this way. The NYPD is conducting a full investigation into this incident.”
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch also called the video “deeply disturbing.”
Both detectives had their guns taken away and are working on modified duty, while the whole team involved in that drug sweep has been disbanded as part of a 90-day review of the narcotics unit, according to officials last week.
“I had no knowledge of who they were,” Brown said of the officers who swooped in on him. “I was in shock.
“Before I knew it, they grabbed me and started punching,” he said.
Brown suffered multiple traumas, including an injury to his leg that has “resulted in permanent scarring,” his filed claim said, forcing him to use a cane and leaves him unable to work.
A fellow shopper recorded the graphic incident, and none of the officers were wearing body cameras, the filing said.
Mina Malik, another lawyer for Brown who served as the head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board a decade ago, said both officers already have other substantiated misconduct complaints against them.
“This is a case of when a few bad apples spoil the entire bunch,” she said.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
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