A 23-year-old Staten Island man died late yesterday after suffering a head injury during a struggle with a police officer in the Clifton neighborhood, the police said.
Details of the incident were sketchy early this morning, but some neighborhood residents said that the man, identified as Ernest Sayon, was beaten by officers. Scores of residents marched through the streets of the neighborhood and around the 120th Precinct station house, chanting and yelling.
The police deployed 120 extra officers in riot gear, including units from Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan. There were no reports of confrontations between residents and the police, but tensions ran high. About 1:30 A.M., eight gunshots rang out and police began searching rooftops around the area. No injuries were immediately reported.
The struggle between Mr. Sayon and the police officer, identified as Donald Brown, occurred about 6 P.M. after several officers on an anti-drug patrol went to an apartment complex at Park Hill Avenue and Sobol Court, the police said. After the officers heard what they thought was a gunshot, Officer Brown tried to detain Mr. Sayon and a struggle ensued.
It was not clear how Mr. Sayon suffered the head injury -- a fact that seemed to fuel confusion and anger in the neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at 7 P.M. at Bayley Seton Hospital, the police said. The hospital said the cause of death had not been determined.
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged people not to rush to any judgment. "We're urging everyone to wait, not to draw any conclusions here and to remain calm," he said on a radio broadcast late last night. "This is being investigated fully and completely by the Police Department, by the District Attorney's office."
He added: "We've been through situations like this in this city before -- where what appears one way at first turns out to be another way a little bit later. So it would be a shame if anybody jumped to conclusions here before at least there was an opportunity to have a full and complete investigation."
The incident began when several officers from the 120th Precinct's Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit were staking out an area around an apartment complex at Park Hill Avenue and Sobol Court.
At one point, the officers spotted and moved in on a man for whom they had an arrest warrant. As the officers, about five of them, attempted to arrest the man, a crowd formed around them.
Then, the officers heard "a big explosion" in the area, said Detective Kim Royster, a police spokeswoman. It was not clear whether the explosion was a gunshot or a firecracker, the police said later.
One of the officers, drawing his gun, went to investigate when he spotted Mr. Sayon and another man.
The officer, Donald Brown, ordered the two men to halt. But Mr. Sayon resisted and he and Officer Brown struggled, the police said.
John Miller, Deputy Police Commissioner for public information, said Officer Brown had drawn his gun because he believed a shot had been fired in the vicinity. Mr. Miller said it was not clear at what point or how Mr. Sayon suffered the head injury.
But one resident claiming to be an eyewitness, Wanda Emptage, said she saw Officer Brown and other police officers beat Mr. Sayon. She said she had just parked her car on Park Hill Avenue when she saw the commotion.
"I saw Officer Brown," Ms. Emptage said. "He had his head in a choke-hold. He hit his head on the ground.
"The other officers were hitting the other parts of his body," she added. "They were beating and beating and beating his body and his head. There's a pool of blood in front 225 Park Hill Avenue."
Officer Brown and two other officers from the 120th Precinct were placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation, said Chief of Department David Scott.
The other two were identified as Sgt. Ed Mahoney and Officer Gregg Gerson, but it was not clear what role they played in the incident.
Eighteen people from the neighborhood who the police said were witnesses were taken into the 120th Precinct station house for questioning.
Mr. Miller said Mr. Sayon had been out on bail in connection with a shooting at the apartment complex last March. In that incident, he said, Mr. Sayon was accused of firing 20 shots toward the complex.
The police later arrested Mr. Sayon at Coney Island Hospital, where he had gone to be treated for an injury stemming from the shooting, Mr. Miller said.
