The NYPD has transferred a captain, lieutenant and six Brooklyn North Narcotics detectives amid the arrest of a mistakenly identified suspect that ended in a violent, caught-on-camera clash that went viral online, the Daily News has learned.
The transfers, which department officials confirmed, will go into effect on Monday.
The transferred officers were part of the team that ran a narcotics buy-and-bust operation in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on Tuesday afternoon that ended with Detectives Volkan Maden and Michael Algerio repeatedly striking Timothy Brown, 46, who wouldn’t allow the officers to handcuff him inside BK Wine Depot on Hoyt St., officials said.
The detectives repeatedly struck Brown as they struggled to take him into custody. They pushed Brown’s head into a glass refrigerator door before Brown ended up falling headfirst into a wine bottle display, sending more than a dozen bottles smashing onto the store floor.
The detectives, who were wearing NYPD vests, then dragged Brown on the floor, over shards of broken glass, to the front of the store, ordering him to stop resisting. Video shot by witness Abelee Moran, which quickly went viral on social media, shows the detectives continue to strike Brown, who was bleeding from a deep cut to his leg, as they try to cuff his hands behind his back.
Both Maden and Agerio were placed on modified duty and stripped of their guns and shields when Moran’s video caught the attention of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Mamdani.
Tisch said the videos of the confrontation were “deeply disturbing.” Mayor Mamdani said the cops used violence that is “unacceptable.”
“Officers should never treat a person this way,” Mamdani added.
According to transfer orders first reported by @thesalgreco, Capt. Daniel Casella, the commanding officer of Brooklyn North Narcotics, has been moved to the department’s Vice Squad. He will be replaced by Ehtasham Khan of Queens North Narcotics, the orders show. Lt. Ronald Reynolds of Brooklyn North Narcotics was also transferred to Vice.
Brooklyn North Narcotics Detectives Adam Wright, Efrain Morales, John Slavinsky, Clydon Sampson, Christian Vasco and Jonathan McDonald were transferred to precinct squads throughout Brooklyn and Queens, the orders show.
A request for comment about the transfers not immediately returned.
There was no immediate indication that the transferred officers were directly involved in Brown’s arrest.
The NYPD has a history of transferring out entire units amid scandals that put the team in a bad light. In 2022, after three detectives from Manhattan North Narcotics were stripped of their guns and shields for allegedly drinking while on duty in the VIP section of an Electric Zoo concert on Randalls Island, a dozen detectives and supervisors, including a deputy chief and an inspector, were transferred to other units.
When reached Saturday, Scott Munro, the president of the Detectives Endowment Association, the NYPD detectives’ union, said that no transfers should be made until the investigation into the arrest is concluded and detectives Maden and Algerio “get their due process.”
On Tuesday, narcotics officers were conducting undercover buy-and-bust operations in Cobble Hill after receiving “numerous complaints from the community about drug sales in the area, and the department has made numerous arrests in the area for drug sales,” according to an NYPD spokesperson.
Undercover officers had bought crack from a suspect named Joshua Ramos, who was quickly arrested, and cops were looking for an associate of Ramos’ who was wearing a white T-shirt and green shorts.
Maden and Algerio thought Brown, who was also wearing a white T-shirt and green shorts, was Ramos’ associate, but they later determined that the security guard, who had just gotten off work, had nothing to do with the deal.
Police gave Brown a desk appearance ticket for resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration, but the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said it was declining to prosecute the charges. A call to Brown for comment Friday was not immediately returned.
Both detectives made 349 felony arrests between them during their careers — but they have also been accused of misconduct a number of times, including excessive force, records show.