James Rolkiewicz of Staten Island was walking through  Manhattan’s gay-friendly West Village neighborhood when he began to have an asthma attack. The 53 year old Rolkiewicz sat on the steps of a local business, trying to find his inhaler, when a patrol car stopped and police began to harass him according to the New York Daily News.

According to the lawsuit, the officers “repeatedly called him ‘a fucking faggot’ while demanding his identification, while plaintiff was having an asthma attack.”

Rolkiewicz said he could not comply with the officers’ requests because he was struggling to breathe and searching for his inhaler. But that only made the police angry.

The lawsuit alleges that Rolkiewicz was “brutally handled, punched, kicked, abusively treated, placed in a chokehold, handcuffed and choked until he lost consciousness.” He spent two days in custody, part of which was to treat his police-inflicted injuries at Bellevue Hospital.

The NYPD told the Daily News it was “reviewing the complaint.”

#GayLivesMatterToo