NYPD Lieutenant Who Oversaw Arrest of Mailman Stripped of Gun and Badge
(DNAINFO) Murray Weiss | April 1, 2016 — The NYPD lieutenant involved in the questionable arrest of a Brooklyn mailman was stripped of his gun and badge Thursday and placed on desk duty, sources told DNAinfo New York.
The development came just a day after Police Commissioner Bill Bratton expressed “strong concerns” over the March 17 encounter, and after Lt. Luis Machado and officers Lazo Lluka, Miguel Rodriguez and David Savella were grilled by NYPD investigators.
The four are set to be harshly disciplined, sources say, and Machado in particular for allowing a minor verbal clash to escalate into a troublesome arrest.
Sources familiar with the probe believe Machado, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, will take the heaviest hit because “the supervisor is the one who should dictate the situation,” a well-placed source explained.
“He is the boss and he is one who controls what occurs,” the source said, predicting Machado, an 11-year veteran, could lose as much as a year’s vacation, but not his job, which was something even the mailman, Glenn Grays, said he did not want to occur.
The incident attracted national attentionbecause part of it was recorded by an eyewitness and that cellphone video was made public by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.