Buffalo Cop Claims She Was Fired For Stopping Another Cop From Choking a Handcuffed Suspect, That Cop Was Later Accused of Choking Another Cop, Retired With Full Pension
In 2006 Cariol Horne, a police officer in Buffalo, New York, was fired for jumping on another cop's back "and/or striking him with her hands." That cop, Gregory Kwiatkowski, says Horne never got on top of her. Horne, who spoke to WKBW in Buffalo, explains what happened:
Horne and about 10 other officers who arrived at the scene helped drag [the handcuffed suspect] Mack out of the home, but once outside, Horne says Officer Kwiatkowski was out of control.
"[Officer] Gregory Kwiatkowski turned Neal Mack around and started choking him. So then I'm like, 'Greg! You're choking him,' because I thought whatever happened in the house he was still upset about so when he didn't stop choking him I just grabbed his arm from around Neal Mack's neck," Horne said.
If the choke hold of a handcuffed suspect caught Horne off guard, it didn't prepare her for what she said Kwiatkowski did next.
"He comes up and punches me in the face and I had to have my bridge replaced," Horne said.
When she tried to defend herself other officers pulled her back and her shoulder was injured.
Kwiatkowski denied the events, and was allowed to retire with a full pension after being suspended for allegedly choking another cop while on-duty, and punching yet another cop off-duty. He and two other Buffalo cops were indicted earlier this year on federal civil rights charges stemming from the arrest of four teenagers who allegedly shot at a crowd with a BB gun and claimed cops shot them with the BB gun and otherwise abused them.
Now Horne, who's lost all her appeals of the termination and doesn't qualify for a pension, is having that status reviewed by the state retirement system at the request of Buffalo's city council.