NYPD Cover-Up: Police Allegedly Run Over Pedestrian, Eliminate Evidence

An NYPD cover-up is currently under investigation after a video has surfaced allegedly countering what the police stated. A pedestrian was said to be run down by a police cruiser last year, and officials have allegedly been denying it.

Pedestrian Ryo Oyamada, 24, was crossing 40th Avenue near 10th Street when a police cruiser allegedly came speeding down the road and fatally struck him. After the incident, it is said that officers quickly dispersed nearby witnesses who had been condemning them for what happened, and then denied it ever happened.

If this is true, then the recent initiative to make body mounted cameras a standard part of the NYPD uniform is certainly justified. There would have been a video of the pedestrian being struck from the driver’s perspective and there would be no possible NYPD cover-up under investigation.

Footage reveals a potential NYPD cover-up over pedestrian’s death http://t.co/8V6yQhjgKR

— Gawker (@Gawker) August 20, 2014

A video released recently from NYC Housing Authority security cameras in Queensbridge reveals what could be proof that the police have been lying all this time. Representatives had claimed at the time that the cruiser lights had been flashing when Officer Ilardi had been responding to a 911 call. His partner, Officer Carman, had been the sole remaining eyewitness, and had allegedly been told to lie about what he saw.

Suspicion raised by the videos recently released show that even though Ilardi and Carman had been responding to what was said to be a knife assault on 12th Street, the officers leaving the nearby van to respond to the same call hadn’t shown any urgency. This indicates a little more than just an NYPD cover-up.

Eyewitnesses had reported later that the cruiser’s lights had not been flashing until after Ilardi struck Oyamada, a fact confirmed by the video. It was also implied that all videos of the incident had been removed on purpose, and one of the videos released was said to sweep the length of the road in question. It seems suspicious that the part covering what happened to Oyamada wasn’t included.

It was as though the important part of the video had been cut to enforce an NYPD cover-up. The part of the video covering the actual incident has not been released.

Attorney Steve Vaccaro said of the video obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request:

“We surmise that when the NYPD came to [NYCHA] hours after the crash, NYCHA presumably said, ‘Okay, here is our footage,’ and then preserved an extract of what they supplied to the NYPD. Then, in the ordinary course of their business, they overwrote the video that preceded and follows that extract. We are in the process of confirming this.

“My opinion, as someone who has looked at many videotape extracts taken by the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad, is that this is not normal, that [the NYPD] would cut off the video right before it depicts the crash scene. Usually it’s an overgenerous sampling of video.”

What would the police have to gain through this potential NYPD cover-up? What else could be going on behind the scenes?

[image via Wikipedia]