NYPD cop beats unarmed man after 'pepper spraying'

© PIX11

In video captured by a bystander in a Brooklyn subway station, a New York City police officer can be seen hitting a young man in the head with his baton after the young man allegedly attempted to avoid paying the fare by jumping the turnstiles.

According to 11 - which obtained the video - the man who filmed the altercation said the struggle began after the officer used pepper spray against the young man, identified as 20-year-old Donovan Lawson of Brooklyn.

In the video, which starts following the reported pepper spraying, the NYPD officer can be seen pushing Lawson up against a wall before striking him with his baton across his legs. As Lawson drops his hands to protect his legs from the officer, the policeman strikes him on his unprotected head. The officer then shoves the bleeding Lawson through the turnstiles and out of the subway station, hitting walls on the way.

Spectators watching the arrest can be heard yelling, "What are you doing" at the arresting officer as he wrestles with the young man.

According to NYPD policy, striking a suspect in the head with a baton is against policy.

The NYPD recently announced that all officers "top to bottom" would undergo retraining in the use of force following the death of Eric Garner in July. Garner died on the street after an officer used his a chokehold on the Staten Island man.

According to the NYPD, Lawson has no prior arrests to his name, but now faces charges of fare beating, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and disrupting government administration in this case.

The 20-year-old Lawson was taken to a hospital along with the officer, who was treated for hand and wrist injuries, police said.

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