(Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney indicted seven people on Thursday over their role in an attack on New York City police officers during a brawl in Times Square last month, bringing charges of assault and other offenses.
Five of the people were arrested within hours or days of the incident, and two others remained at large on Thursday, according to the district attorney’s office. An eighth person has been charged separately by prosecutors in a criminal complaint, rather by a grand jury.
Investigators have not yet identified three others believed to have been involved in the Jan. 27 melee, the D.A.’s office said.
According to a court filing with the indictment, the people charged were identified through video taken from surveillance and police body-worn cameras, as well as from interviews with witnesses.
The incident erupted when two New York Police Department (NYPD) officers approached a group of people on the street and told them to move, leading to a brawl between the defendants and the officers, prosecutors said.
The district attorney’s office identified five of the seven people in the indictment: Yohenry Brito, Darwin Andrews Gomez-Izquiel, Yorman Reveron and Kelvin Servita Arocha, who were charged with second-degree assault and obstruction; and Wilson Juarez, who was charged with evidence tampering and hindering prosecution.
The identities of and charges against the two others remain sealed while police search for them, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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