Off-Duty Officer Caught On Video Shooting Man In The Face

(Photo by Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Footage Released Shows An Off-Duty NY Cop Shooting A Man In The Face & Planting Evidence

Sgt. Richard Blake, 40, is suspected of shooting a Brooklyn man in the face after the two argued over a woman. Richard was stripped of his badge and gun following the attack on Thavone Santana, 21, who was hit in the chin and is expected to recover.

Sources have said Blake claims he fired two shots when Santana tried to rob him around 5 a.m. Thursday in East New York, but video shows Blake as he appears to draw a handgun before Santana winds up sprawled on the ground. The video shows Santana raising his hands before being shot.

The video also appears to show the cop plant an object alongside Santana on the ground before walking around the victim, picking it up and putting it into his pocket.

Blake and Santana know each other through the woman because Santana is good friends with her, but the nature of their relationship and how serious it is, is unclear. Blake has a sealed arrest in a 2016 assault on the woman and was on departmental probation at the time of the shooting, after which he refused to be interviewed by investigators, sources said.