Martin Gugino, peace activist injured by police at 2020 protest in Buffalo, dies at 81
Martin Gugino, who suffered a fractured skull after two Buffalo police officers pushed him at a 2020 protest, died of natural causes in Tampa, Fla., on March 9.
Martin Gugino, a peace activist whose violent encounter with Buffalo police in 2020 was seen by millions around the world, died last month in Tampa, Fla., of natural causes. He was 81.
Two Buffalo police officers shoved Gugino in front of City Hall on June 4, 2020, following a protest over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Then 75, Gugino suffered a fractured skull in the incident, a moment recorded by a reporter on cellphone video that went viral and was quickly seen across the globe.
The moment that came amid the Black Lives Matter protests helped drive attention here to issues of policing.
At the time, President Trump questioned on social media whether Gugino was an antifa provocateur.
"I'm against fascism," Gugino told The Buffalo News in 2021 around the first anniversary of the incident.
Martin Gugino is pictured in 2021 in front of Buffalo City Hall, near where he was knocked to the ground by two
Buffalo police officers suffered a fractured skull. The peace activist died of natural causes last month in Florida. Derek Gee, News file photo
Gugino died on March 9th, surrounded by close family. He is survived by two nieces, Dr. Megan Toufexis and Dr. Andrea Toufexis Esch. A service celebrating Gugino's life is being planned for this summer in Buffalo.
Born in Buffalo on Oct. 15, 1944, Gugino graduated from Canisius High School and the University at Buffalo. He was also a longtime member of the Catholic Worker Movement.
The Buffalo native was passionate about several issues, including human rights, the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and addressing climate change, his family said.
While what happened in 2020 propelled Gugino to prominence, his family described the event as "one reflection of a lifelong commitment to justice and nonviolence."
He worked as a computer technician in Cleveland. After retirement, he became involved with the Western New York Peace Center.
Gugino always had an inquiring, open, and serious mind, said Vicki Ross, former executive director of the center.
"We're all very saddened," Ross said. "He was so important to the Peace Center, to the peace movement. He was such an earnest, hard-working dedicated person. He was through and through about making the world a better place."
Gugino always wanted to have a principled approach and conversation about what is the right thing to do, she said. That's what he said he was doing that night in 2020 when he approached the dozens of officers in riot gear who were marching across Niagara Square.
Gugino said he believed an 8 p.m. curfew instituted by then-Mayor Byron Brown after nearly a week of protests was unconstitutional.
"The point was suppressing dissent ... a peaceful protest ... and you can't do that," Gugino said in 2021. "So I went there to talk to the policemen."
The two officers who pushed him – members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team – were initially charged with assault, but later an Erie County grand jury chose not to indict them.
Then-Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said at the time he still believed a crime occurred, but Flynn was not sure if the officers were reckless or intended to cause Gugino harm. They shouldn't have pushed Gugino, he said.
Flynn also said Gugino "committed a crime" and had "no business approaching those police officers."
Gugino's 2021 federal lawsuit against the city for alleged violations of his civil rights remains pending, according to court records.
In recent years, Gugino had been studying Korean. In the last year of his life, he was involved with Skateistan, a nonprofit founded in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008 whose goal is to empower youth through skateboarding and education programs.
Gugino, who was proud of where he was from, according to his family, supported civil liberties, racial justice and environmental responsibility. He loved to learn and spent his life doing that, especially languages.
Looking back on the night that thrust him into the global spotlight during his 2021 interview with The News, Gugino said he wouldn't do what he did the same way again.
But he also believed his actions that night, after which he spent a month in the hospital, made a difference.
"It made a difference to me," he said. "That counts. And a couple of kids wrote to me to say it made a difference to them. That's all I want."