Cop Fired After Continuously Pepper-Spraying A Black Woman

The Buffalo police union is asking a judge to overturn an arbitrator’s decision upholding the firing of a police officer who pepper-sprayed a woman and repeatedly swore at her.

This is a rare dispute. Erie County Supreme Court documents from 2013 show no other cases in which the city or police union asked a judge to overturn an arbitrator’s decision on an officer’s firing.

Lakisha Neal, 42, filed an internal affairs complaint seven months after Officer Kevin Murphy arrested her on March 25, 2020. Body camera footage shows Murphy grabbing Neal, cursing at him and spraying him with water. Two rounds of pepper spray while other officers do nothing to intervene other than telling Neal to cooperate.

“Get in the car or get sprayed!” Murphy asks after grabbing Neal by the arm and forcing her into a patrol car. Murphy deploys pepper spray after Neal says she’s pregnant.

“Will you listen to me?” Neal asks for a few seconds before Murphy sprays her. As tears from the first spray stream down Neal’s face, Murphy sprays again after Neal tells her she can’t breathe.

Body camera footage shows Murphy dropping at least five F-bombs, the first arriving 10 seconds after he arrived and pulled Neal off a porch.

” Shut up ! » Murphy shouted, cutting Neal off mid-sentence.

The video footage was shot by Murphy’s body camera. It was introduced as an exhibit by the city in the trial.

Neal was arrested and charged with false report, obstruction, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest. These charges were dismissed by the court.

Last fall, an arbitrator upheld the department’s firing of Murphy for excessive force and misrepresentation that Neal admitted to telling a dispatcher that a gun was at the address.

“(Murphy) did not take a second to assess the situation and determine what Neal’s role might have been,” arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick wrote in his October decision. “Instead, (Murphy) jumped to conclusions and immediately decided that Neal was a suspect, without ever considering that she might simply be an innocent party in the situation.”

The Buffalo Police Benevolent Association is asking a judge to overturn the arbitration decision made after Murphy collected more than $276,000 in salary from the city while his disciplinary case was pending.