Police arrested two Bronx men in connection with the caught-on-camera Brooklyn Bridge attack on cops, including NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, who on Thursday described the alleged assailants as “anarchists.”
Quran Campbell, 25, of the Bronx, was charged with attacking three separate officers, police said. Shayborn Banks, also 25 and from the Bronx, was busted for allegedly assaulting a lieutenant and criminal possession of a weapon.
“They are part of this anarchist group that has been infiltrating this Black Lives movement since the beginning,” Monahan said on “Good Day New York.“ “This is what we dealt with since the first protest after George Floyd. It is a legitimate movement, but it is being hijacked by these anarchists, and they are the ones that have been attacking our police officers [and] are out hiding behind the many, many peaceful protesters that are out there.”
When questioned about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s actions following the bridge attack, Monahan said Hizzoner “called me right afterwards, asked about the officers, asked about my well-being.”
“I wouldn’t expect the mayor to be on the bridge with me as this is going on,” he said.
The highest-ranking uniformed member of the department said he was “bruised up” Wednesday morning as cops who were attempting to make an arrest on the roadway were attacked by other aggressors.
“I have some bruises on my body, my hands, fingers got jammed up, nothing broken,” Monahan said.
Two other cops with him took a beating, he said.
“My sergeant who works with me was hit in the head with a cane,” Monahan said. “He got eight staples put in his head, one of the lieutenants out on the walkway was attacked by an individual — he had the broken orbital bone in his face.”
“That’s the individual that I reached over and I had to struggle with,” the chief added, identifying the attacker as Campbell. “I got punched a few times by him, but we were able to get him in custody.”
Meanwhile, the attacker caught on video clubbing cops with a cane is still on the loose, Monahan said.
“We’re working really hard with our detectives to get that individual with the cane,” he said. “That’s the person we want to get in custody.”
During the bridge attack, Monahan said, he didn’t think twice about the City Council’s anti-chokehold bill, which includes a portion that he previously called “dangerous” — a ban on maneuvers that would press a suspect’s diaphragm.
“As a police officer, we make arrests,” Monahan said. “I cannot be thinking about that bill or worrying about that while I’m fighting with somebody. It’s what I had to do yesterday, it was not in my mind and I asked my cops, ‘Don’t worry about this, if you’re doing the right thing, if you’re using a reasonable amount of force to place someone in custody, don’t worry about that bill.’”