Jonathan Daza, 22, says the NYPD needs to improve its policing. He is shown with his wife, Iris Ariza (at left) and his sister Wendy, 20.

The Brooklyn fruit vendor who was kicked in the back by a cop after he had been subdued and handcuffed by other officers said he can't stop thinking about the jarring assault and the officer's cheap shot.

"I couldn't stop watching the video. I was traumatized," Jonathan Daza said Thursday at his Sunset Park home, holding back tears as his 7-month-old son, Jonathan Jr., bounced on his shoulder.


"I watched it over and over, and I honestly can't believe that I'm still here ... that I'm still alive."



As one of the cops grilled Daza's 17-year-old sister, the vendor said he told her not to answer their questions. The police quickly turned their attention to the vendor.

"The officer starts yelling at me, asking me who I am, and I told him: 'I'm her brother,'" Daza recalled. "That's when the officer grabbed me, with force; he pulled me to the side and then he called for more officers, and then that's when they started hitting me."

Post by El Grito De Sunset Park.

He was subdued by a band of cops and was struck repeatedly, he says.

Then, while he was lying on his side and handcuffed, Police Officer Vincent Ciardiello walked up and kicked him in the back.

"That officer wasn't even around before, he wasn't involved; he just came out of nowhere," said Daza's wife, Iris Ariza, 19, who is three months pregnant. Cops allegedly shoved her aside as she tried to intercede, Daza says.

"It was scary to see all of those police officers around him, on top of him," she said, before recalling how she felt after her husband was literally kicked while he was down. "I saw it and I was thinking: Why would he do that to him?"

Daza said the police acted as if he had been a threat to them.

"They just went to attack me, for no reason," Daza said. "I didn't do nothing to provoke this, there was no way of me doing anything to them."

"I was shocked that this was happening, that they were doing this," he said of his forceful arrest.

Daza, who is seen on the video trying to worm away from police and refusing to be handcuffed, was charged with assault, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration.

After the video was released on Facebook on Tuesday and then published online by the Daily News and other outlets, Officer Ciardiello, who has five years on the force, was suspended and stripped of both his gun and his badge.


The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Wednesday.

Ciardiello was the only officer involved in Daza's arrest to have been disciplined.

Daza, though he didn't claim any injuries on Sunday, said his body still aches from the lumps he took during the police takedown and the cheap blow to his back.

"I have pain in my entire body. I haven't been able to go back to work and I have a family to feed," he said. "I'm trying to provide for them, and I don't what I'm going to do."

Daza said he hopes Ciardiello receives a punishment from the NYPD and that its example will encourage other officers to treat people better.

"I'm very upset. I don't like how they attacked me; I was in jail for no reason," Daza said. "I want the police to take care of us better and treat us better, and not to hit us for no reason."

"They need to improve their policing," he said. "I want to see improvement."

Bratton recently ordered a "re-engineering" of the department that will include an emphasis on retraining cops as to how and when to use force. The move came after Staten Island resident Eric Garner died July 17 following a heavy-handed arrest by NYPD cops. One of the officers, according to video footage, appeared to put him into a chokehold, a move banned under NYPD protocol. Michael Julian, a former NYPD chief of personnel, has been hired as a consultant to lead the NYPD's retraining efforts.