Bodycam footage and additional cell phone footage obtained by The Intercept, exposes two New York Police Department officials planting marijuana in a patron’s vehicle as they were conducting a search. This is the second time in a two-month span that NYPD officers Kyle Erickson and Elmer Pastran have been caught on camera planting illegal substances in and on the property of innocent civilians. This footage comes just days after a Jefferson Parrish Police officer was caught visibly planting narcotics on a man in Louisiana. 

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In the most recent footage of blatant law enforcement corruption, Officers Erickson and Pastran pulled over a vehicle for allegedly having a broken a taillight. The passenger, Jason Serrano, and the driver, an unidentified young woman, rolled down their windows and argued that they couldn’t have been accused of having a broken taillight being that the officers were coming from the opposite direction and had to make a U-turn in order to obstruct them from reaching their destination. 

Instantaneously, the Staten Island officers claimed that the vehicle “smelled like weed,” and asked if they could conduct a search. Serrano revealed that he was recovering from a stab wound and “could barely move,” exposing his surgery scar for the officers to see. Eventually, the young man and his associate obliged allowing the officers in the young woman’s car to search for the decriminalized substance, but that didn’t stop the officers from forcing Serrano to the ground and handcuffing him after he, himself, refused to be searched. 

During the footage, officer Erickson can be heard telling Pastran “We gotta find something,” as they illegally searched Serrano’s jacket. After unsuccessfully finding anything incriminating, Erickson can be seen placing a small amount of cannabis near the vehicle’s cup holders on his bodycam footage before pretending to search other areas of the car. The NYPD official then stated “I smell a little weed,” before reaching for the marijuana he just placed near the cup holders. 

The same chain events took place in Feb. 2018 arrest of New York citizen, Lasou Kuyateh. Kuyateh spent a total of two weeks in a New York state jail after bodycam footage of officer Erickson mysteriously shut off before discovering a marijuana cigarette in his car. In his testimony, the corrupt cop claimed his bodycam “malfunctioned”  due to a “technical difficulty” which later led to Kuyateh’s possession of marijuana charges being dropped. 

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NYPD’s internal affairs department investigated the 2018 case and discovered that any accusations of misconduct by Erickson and Pastran are “unfounded.” Last year, Kuyateh filed a suit against the city of New York for his wrongful arrest for $1 million. As for the fraudulent encounter, Jason Serrano and the unnamed young woman in the footage had to endure, there has yet to be a determination on whether or not the couple will take legal action against Erickson, Pastran, and the NYPD. 

Over the course of the last year, the New York Police Department has gotten hip-hop artists dropped from performing in festivals in their hometown, been caught on tape ordering officers to shoot rappers on-sight, shut down back-to-school drives, and more. 

Check out the sickening footage of the encounter in the video provided below. 

RZA surprised students at PS 78, Stapleton with 30 new iPads on Thursday after their teacher, Jo-Ann Accardi, tweeted at the Wu-Tang rapper asking for help.

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“I’m here today because one of your teachers sent me a tweet on my Twitter and she said that there wasn’t enough iPads, just enough to go around,” RZA told the students, according to SI Live. “I reached out to my Wu-Tang brothers and Apple, and we have some iPads here going to the school and going to your classes so you guys have a better chance for a proper education.”

RZA answered questions from the students and explained the importance of education.

He added on Instagram with a post of the students captioned, “I would like to thank the #Children’s Literary Society #CLS and P.S. 78 for instilling positivity into the youth.”

Principal Jodi Contento thanked RZA for his charitable act: “I really want to emphasize that any time somebody who has roots in the community comes back to share their successes, that’s the most priceless thing we could have for our school,” Contento said. “It’s all about bringing in the positive role models. We know how much is out there that is not always positive for us to see. Having those positive models and success stories are tremendous.”

Many people endure distressing events that they pinpoint as the moments the course of lives shifted. For Shyheim, he says it was when he was violently assaulted and robbed in a nightclub in his hometown of Staten Island. The Wu-Tang Clan-affiliated rapper was recently released from prison after serving five years for second-degree manslaughter following a fatal car accident. He chatted with VladTV about milestones in his life, including those that were devastating.

According to Shyheim, he was in a nightclub one evening when he attacked. “I’m wearing $100,000 worth of jewelry, chains, rings, bracelets, money in my pocket,” he recalled. “I definitely think jewelry and things of that was the spark of it. Now, when I look back at it, you can’t bring honey in a place where a bunch of bees is at.” He noted that many of the people there were hustlers just trying to make a way, and Shyheim was enjoying, and showing off, the fruits of his success.

Vlad pressed Shyheim about what happened during the robbery itself, but the rapper seemed as if he didn’t want to share details. “Yeah, it got into that, but like I said, Vlad, that’s a thing of the past,” he said. “I learned from it. I learned to not try to put myself in those situations. Everyone that was involved, I understand. I wish them the best in life. Yeah, I just try to move forward from that whole ordeal.”

He added, “That really was the thing that changed my life. It forced me to be other than myself, to wanna carry guns and carry a gun to protect myself. Trauma’s a lot. Today they would call it bullying, back then we would call it, it is what it is.” Shyheim shared that during the attack he was slashed in the face with a box cutter and his wound required upwards of 350 stitches “inside and outside.”

The rapper said he wasn’t “in the street” at the time so he was shocked by the attack. “It’s one thing about rappin’ something about your neighborhood or what you seen to actually becoming a victim of that,” Shyheim said. Watch his clip below and check out what he said about losing trust for people and entering a state of paranoia following the violent assault.

In early January, the Rugged Child returned home. Rapper Shyheim began his career in the music industry when he was just 14-years-old and it didn’t take long for the Staten Island native to pick up steam in the industry. The Wu-Tang affiliated emcee reached a moderate level of success, but he found himself on the wrong side of the law.

In 2013, authorities search his home and found heroin and firearms. The following year, he was involved in a car accident that took the life of another driver. Shyheim ended up pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter along with weapons and drug charges, and for the last five years, the rapper has been behind bars. 

Now that he’s been welcomed home, Shyheim is enjoying life as a free man. He recently sat down with VladTV to speak at length about his career and upbringing, and the rapper shared that he was an only child with a father in prison and a mother with a drug addiction. Shyheim shared that his neighborhood, including the Wu-Tang Clan, became his family. He also said that he inked a deal before Wu ever signed theirs.

“I signed to Virgin Records—it actually was a big bidding war because Virgin had lost Tevin Campbell to Warner Bros and they wasn’t trying to lose me to Benny Medina as well,” he said. “It was a pretty intense bidding war and back then to have the type of record deal that I had back then as a new artist was pretty much unheard of.” He reportedly signed for $350K at 13-years-old. Check out the clip of his interview below.