A 75-year-old man who was hospitalized after he was shoved to the ground by a police officer during a protest in Buffalo on Thursday night is "alert and oriented," according to an Erie County official.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted an update on the unidentified man's condition Friday.
He wrote he was "still in serious, but stable condition at the at the Erie County Medical Center."
"As was relayed to me by an ECMC official, he is 'alert and oriented,'" Poloncarz tweeted. "That is better news. Let's hope he fully recovers."
The man was hospitalized after he fell onto the sidewalk from a push from a cop shortly after a curfew went into effect. The incident was recorded on video. People have been protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man, who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last week.
Poloncarz also tweeted the officers involved in the incident "must be held responsible for their actions" and not just terminated from the department.
The two officers involved in the shoving incident have been suspended without pay.
"I was deeply disturbed by the video, as was Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood," Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said in a statement. "He directed an immediate investigation into the matter, and the two officers have been suspended without pay."
In response to the suspension of the two officers, 57 members of the department's emergency response team resigned from their positions Friday.
An online fundraiser has been set up to help the man pay for his medical expenses.
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