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![Retired FBI officer J. Gary DiLaura](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/buffalo-56-1.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=878)
![Aaron Torgalski (left) and Robert McCabe](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/buffalo-55.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=878)
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A former fed who trained the police in Buffalo believes the elderly protester who was hospitalized after a cop pushed him to the ground “got away lightly” and “took a dive,” according to a report.
The retired FBI agent, Gary DiLaura, told the Sun he thinks there’s no chance Buffalo officers will be convicted of assault over the now-viral video showing longtime peace activist Martin Gugino fall and police leave him bleeding on the ground.
“I can’t believe that they didn’t deck him. If that would have been a 40-year-old guy going up there, I guarantee you they’d have been all over him,” DiLaura said.
“He absolutely got away lightly. He got a light push and in my humble opinion, he took a dive and the dive backfired because he hit his head. Maybe it’ll knock a little bit of sense into him,” added the former fed, who trained Buffalo police on firearms and defensive tactics, according to the report.
“These cops were acting how they have been trained to act. There’s no way they are going to be convicted of assault.”
Gugino’s lawyer said Thursday the 75-year-old activist suffered a brain injury. His friends previously described him as a “gentle person.”
The two officers, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, were both charged with second-degree assault and suspended — leading to dozens of cops resigning from the emergency team, but not the police force, as an act of solidarity.
DiLaura also offered his services at the officers’ trial to “testify in court that these case officers did exactly what they were trained to do and exercised exemplary control.”
The former fed told the Sun the device Gugino was holding “could be a smartphone” or “could be a little bomb.”
“They have no idea what this guy’s doing. Put yourself in their spot, here’s a guy who has no business being here. This guy’s obviously an old man. He should not be here.”
President Trump weighed in on the incident earlier this week, claiming, without evidence, that Gugino “could be an ANTIFA provocateur” and suggested it was a “set up.”