Attorneys Derek Sells and Mina Malik of The Cochran Firm–New York have been retained by Timothy Brown, a Brooklyn man who was violently beaten and arrested by NYPD detectives after being wrongly accused of associating with a drug dealer.

The incident occurred earlier this month and was captured on video by a fellow shopper inside a Brooklyn liquor store. The footage was subsequently posted online and went viral, drawing the attention of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other city leaders.

According to Mr. Brown, he had just gotten off work on April 14 and had stopped at the liquor store to purchase wine when two NYPD detectives approached him and misidentified him as a drug dealer’s associate. Mr. Brown says the detectives told him he was under arrest and then slammed him against a glass wall inside the store. The NYPD detectives then violently punched and kicked him and pushed him into a stack of bottles, which shattered on the floor.  Mr. Brown was then dragged through the broken glass by the detectives, causing his leg to be sliced open and ultimately needing approximately 36 stitches to close the wound. He is permanently disfigured as a result.

Despite receiving inquiries from numerous attorneys, Mr. Brown chose Derek Sells and Mina Malik to represent him because he believed in The Cochran Firm.  

On Tuesday, April 28th, The Cochran Firm held a press conference in New York to address a Notice of Claim filed on Mr. Brown’s behalf, demanding $100 million from the City of New York. Mr. Brown also spoke publicly for the first time about the incident.

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The press conference generated significant local and national media coverage, including features on Good Morning America, The New York Times, and ABC World News Tonight.