Elected official charged with biting NYPD officer

NEW YORK — City Council member Susan Zhuang was arrested early Wednesday on charges she bit a deputy police chief, while protesting against a planned homeless shelter in her southern Brooklyn district.

Video obtained by POLITICO showed Zhuang being led away in handcuffs by cops. Another video shows Zhuang and other demonstrators pushing metal barriers up against police officers. Yet another shows Zhuang resisting an NYPD officer's effort to handcuff her.

“Councilwoman Zhuang has been a great partner to the New York City Police Department for a long time,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “But actions today, of assaulting one of our police officers, a deputy chief, by biting him viciously in the arm, I can't explain it right now.”

An NYPD spokesperson said Zhuang was expected to face a felony count of assault in the second degree, plus misdemeanor charges of assault, obstruction of governmental administration, and resisting arrest.

Zhuang’s communications director, Felix Tager, confirmed she was arrested and being held at the precinct as of 9:50 a.m. Tager said “Zhuang was arrested after trying to protect an 80-year-old woman” who was being pushed up against the barricades.

Chell disagreed, saying the woman had laid herself under the barricade.

“When we asked her to leave, she said she wasn’t feeling well. So what we did as an agency, we called an ambulance for her,” he added. “It was at that time, the barricades started getting pushed.”

Zhuang, a first-term Democrat, was leading a demonstration against what she incorrectly claimed was unpermitted construction on the site that will be demolished to build a homeless shelter at 2501 86th Street in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Photos posted online show a permit was posted later in the morning, and a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams’ administration confirmed the owner had the proper permitting.

An NYPD spokesperson confirmed there were a number of arrests at the site in addition to Zhuang’s but could not yet provide details. The NYPD said about 150 people were protesting this morning, but Tager said the crowd had since grown to around 1,000 people.

Zhuang and political allies, including Assemblymembers William Colton and Lester Chang, have been fighting against the proposed shelter for homeless men for months, leading a number of massive rallies in the neighborhood with a large Chinese American population, as well as one outside City Hall in May.

Zhuang has argued the shelter would hurt public safety, and instead affordable housing should be built on the site, a closed medical office.

The city Department of Homeless Services told FOX 5 they have been communicating with neighbors since November about the site, which is directly under the 25th Avenue D train station, and that the area does not currently have any shelters.

“The Adams administration is committed to building this much needed shelter — the first of its kind in this community — which will offer New Yorkers experiencing homelessness the critical care they need to get back on their feet,” William Fowler, a City Hall spokesperson, said in a statement to POLITICO.

“Working with our nonprofit partners, we will provide robust support to help future shelter residents stabilize their lives and move into permanent housing. We maintain open lines of communication with the community and remain committed to ongoing engagement to address the neighborhoods’ needs,” Fowler added.

Zhuang is a member of the conservative Common Sense Caucus, along with Republican council members. She was endorsed by the Police Benevolent Association in her run for the open council seat last year. But now, the police union said it’s “shocked.”

“There should be no double standard in this case,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said in a statement. “After a full and fair investigation, Councilmember Zhuang and anyone else involved must face full accountability for their conduct.”

Unlike the state Legislature, the City Council does not automatically expel members, for a felony conviction. But the council would be expected to open an ethics investigation to consider punishment.

In a statement, a council spokesperson said "violence is never acceptable," and that the body would be seeking to learn more about what happened.

But the Committee on Standards and Ethics would likely not act until the case is resolved in court. Last year, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez dropped a gun possession charge against City Council member Inna Vernikov because there wasn’t proof the gun was operable. Vernikov was not arrested at the counter-protest where she was pictured with a gun, and was allowed to turn herself in hours later.

Vernikov was reelected after her arrest, and her popularity did not appear to wane.

Similarly, a southern Brooklyn political operative who was granted anonymity to speak about a still-developing case, suggested this arrest could help Zhuang politically.

“This is the biggest Chinese political issue in New York City right now, which the mayor is going to have to contend with as well,” the operative said. “She’s going to become like a star in her district after this arrest against the shelter.”