A man operating a motor scooter is cruising the wrong way down a bike lane in Lower Manhattan when an unmarked police car swerves into his path. The cruiser hits him head on. He is thrown over the hood of the car, lands in the street and loses consciousness.
The man, Delonny Davis, came to as officers handcuffed him, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. He was seen by medics and then taken to a nearby police precinct. Mr. Davis, now 40, was charged with infractions, including reckless driving.
The officers who hit him on Aug. 28, 2023, were members of a special Police Department unit called the Community Response Team, the suit said. The unit was assigned to respond to quality-of-life complaints like illegal motorbikes and street vendors.
In police and court documents, the officer who drove the car claimed that he had been heading straight west on East Second Street in the East Village, and had tried to avoid Mr. Davis, who he said slammed into the police vehicle. The surveillance video that captured the crash contradicts that claim.
In Mr. Davis’s lawsuit, which names the officers, the city and two top police officials who created the unit, he claims the Police Department used excessive force and charged him without justification. He also accuses the officers of lying.
Press officials for the Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The city’s Law Department declined to comment.
The suit underscores the culture of the Police Department from 2022 to 2024, when its leaders, backed by Mayor Eric Adams, encouraged officers to use aggressive tactics like high-speed pursuits to stop low-level crimes. Police officials saw motorbikes as a scourge in neighborhoods where residents had been complaining about bikes, ATVs and mopeds speeding down streets, weaving in and out of traffic and endangering pedestrians.
The collision in the East Village occurred during a brief time in the department when officers were encouraged to crack down on motorists accused of violating even minor traffic laws, according to the lawsuit.
“Specifically, officers were told to intentionally drive into, in front of or dangerously near other motor vehicles as a means of restraining their operators,” the lawsuit says.
Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch, who took over the department in November 2024, quickly issued an order forbidding high-speed pursuits, unless drivers had committed the “most serious and violent crimes.”
According to the suit, Mr. Davis was driving westbound in a traffic lane when he passed a store where he had meant to have his cellphone repaired. Realizing he had gone too far, he turned and drove the short distance back in the bike lane, the suit says.
When his scooter was hit, Mr. Davis’s head cracked the windshield of the police vehicle, according to the lawsuit. It says that after he regained consciousness, he complained of dizziness as well as pain in his legs, arms, ribs and neck, but the police would not allow him to go to the hospital.
Mr. Davis’s suit does not dispute that he was driving the wrong way in the bike lane — one of several traffic offenses he was charged with. (He ultimately pleaded guilty to operating a motor vehicle without a license.) But the lawsuit argues that the infractions did not justify the ramming of his scooter.
“Intentionally cutting off and colliding with plaintiff was a gratuitous use of force that was vastly out of proportion to any danger,” the suit says.
Mr. Davis’s lawyers said in a statement that having the video of the episode, a copy of which they provided to The New York Times, was critical to their client’s case.
“Surveillance video is the great equalizer: It shows the truth and — when it’s clear — it settles all disputes,” said the lawyers, Andrew G. Celli Jr. and Wylie Stecklow.
The Community Response Team was established to address low-level infractions, like mopeds and dirt bikes speeding down city streets and sidewalks, the prevalence of vehicles with covered license plates known as ghost cars, and unlicensed vendors.
The team, whose members wore dark polo shirts and khaki pants and rode in unmarked cars, became known for aggressive tactics, which were celebrated by Mr. Adams and some department leaders even as other officials grew alarmed.
In July 2023, The City reported that the unit had helped drive a nearly 600 percent increase in the number of high-speed chases, with some resulting in serious injuries and even two deaths.
John Chell, then the department’s chief of patrol, was unapologetic.
“People thinking they can take off on us? Those days are over,” he said at a news conference that month.
A November 2024 report by the city’s Department of Investigation faulted the team for its lack of transparency. The report said there were no written policies or procedures guiding the unit, or even requirements that officers complete specialized training before joining. The Police Department accepted most of the report’s recommendations.
In March 2025, about three months after Ms. Tisch became commissioner, she told the City Council that the department was moving away from the Community Response Team model and instead creating “quality-of-life” teams that would operate out of precincts and be overseen by commanders there.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
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