Articles for Investigative Post staff

Jun 5

2020

Police crowd-control unit resigns in protest

Updated: Saturday, 5:11 p.m. A special squad on the Buffalo Police Department — the Emergency Response Team — has resigned from their posts, according to the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association. The announcement comes one day after two members were suspended without pay when a video surfaced, showing the officers pushing over a 75-year-old protestor, causing injury. The BPD Internal Affairs unit has opened an investigation into the incident. “Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” said John Evans, PBA president. All officers who resigned from ERT will remain on[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 4

2020

Police assault injures protester

Updated: Friday, 3:40 a.m. Important events have unfolded since we posted Thursday evening about a peaceful resolution between police and protesters the night before in front of City Hall. Shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday, a video shot by a reporter with WBFO captured two Buffalo police officers shoving a 75-year-old protester to the ground. The man struck his head with an audible thud on the sidewalk in front of City Hall and immediately began bleeding. He was transferred to Erie County Medical Center, where he is listed in serious but stable condition. Here’s a report from our partners at WGRZ. A[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jun 2

2020

PBA: Cops not trained or equipped for protests

Buffalo police need equipment and training to adequately deal with crowds of protestors, John Evans, president of the Police Benevolent Association, has told Investigative Post. Evans is one of several officers who have contacted Ali Ingersoll in recent days to complain about the department’s lack of preparedness. Evans noted grievances and correspondence dating to 2014 in which the union has raised the issue with the department’s leadership. Speaking of this week’s protests against police violence, Evans said: “You want to end the thing without killing anyone or hurting them badly … I would like to see some of the other[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 21

2020

COVID-19 cited in spike of opioid overdoses

Update: 3:15 p.m. There’s yet another consequence to the COVID-19 pandemic: More opioid users are dying of overdoses. Health authorities report that opioid use has not increased locally, but because of social isolation, more people are using alone, making it less likely someone is around to help them in the event they overdose. Eighty-five people died in Erie County from presumed overdoses through the first four months of the year. That’s up from 48 during the same period last year and 64 in 2018. “They’re alone and we’re finding people too late,” said Cheryll Moore, director of the Erie County[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 14

2020

Video triggers investigation of cop conduct

A video showing a white Buffalo police officer repeatedly punching the face of a black man who was stopped for a traffic violation has gone viral on social media and triggered investigations by the Erie County District Attorney and the Police Department’s Internal Affairs office. The video, which has been shared on Facebook more than 1,300 times, shows the officers wrestling with Quentin Suttles at the side of a car in an attempt to restrain him. The officer tells Suttles he’s “making it worse” on himself. The video shows Ronald J. Ammerman, a third-generation police officer and three-year veteran of[...]

Posted 5 years ago

May 9

2020

Faulty logic behind refusal to release inmates

Updated at 10:40 a.m. The argument prosecutors, and sometimes judges, make is that few inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, so it’s safe to keep them incarcerated. Authorities, however, are not testing many inmates, so they don’t know how healthy they really are. As a result, relatively few prisoners held in Erie County jails or the state’s 53 prisons who are deemed as infectious risks are being released. Only five of Erie County’s 528 inmates have been tested, and only 52 have been released due to COVID-19 concerns. “The standard line from the DA’s office is that ‘We don’t have[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 21

2020

Infections spike among immigrant detainees

Large numbers of detained immigrants and state inmates in Western New York facilities are starting to test positive for COVID-19. Infections have mushroomed from 13 on Friday to 46 on Tuesday among immigrant detainees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia. That’s more positive test results than at any of the 25 detention facilities operated nationwide by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Twenty-three inmates have tested positive at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden. Eleven of the 23 people have recovered, according to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Only two other state prisons — Sing Sing[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 15

2020

More sick detainees; more released inmates

Updated: 3:08 p.m. A growing, but still small number of people are being released from local jails and the immigration detention center in Batavia in response to concerns about possible infection from COVID-19. Up to 80 people have gotten out in recent weeks as the result of efforts by advocates to release those incarcerated to get them out of harm’s way from the coronavirus. Some were near the tail end of their sentences for misdemeanor crimes. Others were in for parole violations, and still others had their bail eliminated or reduced. While no inmates have tested positive for COVID-19 at[...]

Posted 5 years ago