The man who allegedly struck a disabled man in the face and then reportedly fled from police has turned himself in.
Myquan Pringle, 22, is accused of hitting Billy, a well-known Niagara Falls resident with mental and physical disabilities. The video was posted to Facebook last month.
The District Attorney’s Office was working with Pringle’s attorney for the past several days to have Pringle surrender to authorities.
But when that didn’t happen, an arrest warrant was issued for felony endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. Police believe Billy was targeted "due to his limited ability to communicate clearly with responding officers when police are called." Though the police were not called to this incident, they say Billy has been victimized several times in the past.
Police say when they went to arrest Pringle at his apartment on 5th Street in Niagara Falls, he fled out the rear. As a result, he’s now also facing charges of resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration.
He turned himself into authorities Tuesday night.
Pringle is also facing charges in two other cases, including third degree robbery and second degree harassment for a case from September last year. Police describe that as a domestic violence case and say the victim has an order of protection against Pringle.
Pringle is also facing charges if a domestic violence case from June 2015, where he is charged with second degree burglary and fourth degree criminal mischief.
Kelly Rizzo, Niagara Falls Police Chief of Detectives, said, "Pringle's history shows he has no problem preying on those weaker than he, victimizing young women and a disabled man. Fortunately for all of us, his three victims may not have been strong enough to fight him off, but they were all strong enough to stand up to him afterwards and do what they could to ensure that he would never harm them, or others, again."
"Hopefully after these cases have been adjudicated and Pringle has paid whatever debt to society the courts deem fair, the Niagara Falls Police Department will never again have to deal with Pringle victimizing anyone else ever again."
Rizzo said officers believe the viral video helped put pressure on Pringle to turn himself on. "If we only had a story on paper, it wouldn't have played as well as the video," Rizzo said. "The video really showed just how terrible it was."
"I think he turned himself in because he knew everybody was looking out the window to find out where he was. And we were getting a lot of phone calls about where he was walking down the street, the disguises he was wearing, so I think that wore on him."
Both Rizzo and Billy's friend, Jim Fernandez, said if anything comes out of this, they hope it is an anti-bullying message.
"Billy's not the only one in the area who gets bullied," Fernandez said. "Not only does this happen to younger kids, but it happens to older individuals too, and hopefully it sheds a little light and stops the bullying in our society."
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