first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2022-04-07 17:40:41.252968+00:00,2023-12-04 22:27:54.577315+00:00,New York Post reporter assaulted by man being evicted from encampment,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-post-reporter-assaulted-by-man-being-evicted-from-encampment/,2023-12-04 22:27:54.010160+00:00,,,(2023-10-11 00:00:00+00:00) Case sealed for man who attacked New York Post reporter,Assault,,,,Kevin Sheehan (New York Post),,2022-03-28,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Kevin Sheehan, a reporter for the New York Post, was assaulted by a man who was being evicted from his makeshift dwelling in Riverbank State Park in New York City on March 28, 2022.
According to the Post, the man, Rewell Altunaga, has lived in the park for several months. His eviction came the day after city officials issued a "notice of clean up" in the area of the park where Altunaga was living. Sheehan, who was reporting on the New York Police Department eviction of the area with a colleague, captured the assault on video.
The video shows Altunaga climbing down from a tree and grabbing a tree branch before walking toward Sheehan. Altunaga then asks Sheehan, "Why are you taking pictures?" before hitting Sheehan twice with the tree branch, once on his head, and knocking his phone out of his hand. Sheehan did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and it is unclear if his phone was damaged.
In the video, Sheehan tells three police officers present about the assault. "This guy just hit me with a stick. You guys can't just let him walk away. That's assault," he said.
The video shows NYPD police officers arresting Altunaga after he hit another Post journalist, photographer G.N. Miller, with a garbage bag, causing Miller’s camera to smash to the ground. The Tracker has documented that assault and equipment damage here.
According to the Post, Altunaga was charged with second-degree assault and released without bail on March 30. A judge also ordered that he remain clear of journalists Sheehan and Miller. NYPD has acknowledged but not responded to a request for more details.
A man hit a New York Post reporter with a piece of lumber during a demonstration to cut police funding at New York’s City Hall on July 12, 2020, the Post reported. The man was later arrested and charged with assault, police said.
The weeks-long “Occupy City Hall” protests in June drew hundreds of people who pressed elected leaders to slash $1 billion from the New York City Police Department’s annual operating budget of around $6 billion. Dozens of people camped outside City Hall during the lengthy demonstration, one of many nationwide sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Post reporter Kevin Sheehan was using his smartphone to film the demonstration at about 11 a.m. on July 12 from a public street, standing on the opposite side of a metal barrier, when a man with a piece of wood in his hand approached the journalist, demanding he stop recording.
“Put the fucking camera down!” the man yelled while swinging the board, which Sheehan caught on video. The assailant knocked Sheehan’s phone out of his hand and struck him in the face, the Post reported.
The attack left Sheehan with a headache and a swollen lip. The reporter walked away from the barricade but his assailant began to follow him, according to the Post.
Sheehan, who was wearing NYPD-issued press credentials around his neck, walked over to a group of police officers assembled nearby to report the incident. An officer told him that the attack didn’t qualify as an assault because no physical marks were visible, the Post reported on July 12.
“It’s not assault, it’s harassment,” the officer reportedly told Sheehan. Police didn’t initially make any arrests related to the attack.
But a spokesperson for the NYPD told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Daniel Mayo, 32, of Queens, was arrested on July 14 in connection with the incident and charged with second-degree assault.
The spokesperson confirmed that the man portrayed in Sheehan’s video attacking the reporter with a piece of lumber matches Mayo’s mugshot. Attempts to reach Mayo and his attorney weren’t successful.
Sheehan declined to comment and the Post didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The New York City Council approved a budget deal on June 30 to cut about $1 billion from the NYPD, but some protesters continued camping at City Hall for weeks after the vote. By mid-July, the number of protesters there had dwindled to about 50, the Post reported, and the camp was cleared on July 22, according to The New York Times.
Activists in New York, Minneapolis and many other cities have called on lawmakers to “defund” law enforcement agencies following the deaths of Floyd and other Black people at the hands of police, such as Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.