New York Police Department Chief Terence Monahan joined “Your World” on Thursday for his first television interview since he and a group of officers were attacked while carrying out an arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge a day earlier.
“I feel good. You know, I have a few bruises here and there. Fortunately, the fingers weren’t broken, they just got a little stuck. So I’m fine,” Monahan told host Neil Cavuto. “I am much better than my sergeant and the lieutenant who was attacked.”
The New York Post reported Thursday that a woman had been arrested in connection with the attack that wounded three officers.
VIDEO SHOWS PROTESTERS GET BATS SHIPMENTS BEFORE BROOKLYN BRIDGE BRAWL
“So we went to arrest him. While we were detaining him, he grabbed onto a railing next to the walkway and a fight begins. The fight begins,” Monahan said. “That’s when the guy pulls out the baton and hits my lieutenant in the head, cuts it open. He hits my sergeant in the head, causing eight staples on the head.”
“We were able to get that person out of the way. When I returned to identify the person who hit him with the baton, our bike patrol was approaching,” Monhan continued. “The person who hit him with the cane was able to jump into the opposite traffic and escape. But another individual grabbed the handle of a mop and loaded our boys onto the bike, knocking them down. He ends up on top of one of our unit lieutenants on a bike and I literally went to town on it, started hitting him with rights and lefts, full blows to the face.
“It was at that time, me and my lieutenant [who] he was already bleeding from his head, he reached out to get it out … “the chief concluded.” Punches are being thrown. Get rid of them. He puts himself in a boxing position to continue. It was then that I reached out, grabbed him, and was able to pull him toward a fence. He turns to me, throws a couple of punches in my direction … we can grab him, handcuff him and he was arrested for the assault on the officer … The bicycle lieutenant ended up breaking an orbital bone.
Monahan admitted that officers are dealing with a particularly high level of “animosity” not only from protesters, but also from ordinary members of the public.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“In the corners, there is a feeling that they don’t have to listen to the police and that they are ready to fight the police officers,” he said.
Monahan later added that the morale level among the officers is “as low as it has been in a long time.”
“It is important that we as an agency tell them how much we appreciate them, how much we know they are out there, the problem they are dealing with on the street. But most importantly, the silent majority that is out there, the community that supports to our police officers, who know the work they do. They know how many times they found a burning building to save a life. They know how many times they saved the life of a suffocated baby, a cardiac victim, how often They ran into gunshots to save people. These are the men and women you hear others despise regularly.
