New York City physician Yves Duroseau and his wife Claude were hosting a party at their home recently when their white neighbor became annoyed with the festivities and allegedly picked up the water hose to attack the doctor and his guests, who were mostly Black.

In a lawsuit filed after the incident, the Black couple and their guests said Marcus Rosebrock created “a scene reminiscent of 1960’s Birmingham, Alabama, when White law enforcement officers used fire hoses to douse, assault and batter African Americans participating in civil rights demonstrations in an attempt to get them to comply and disperse.”

The Duroseaus released footage of their neighbor spraying the water hose over the fence separating the two homes in NYC’s Forest Hills neighborhood,  The Daily Beast reported. According to the lawsuit, the party hosts and their 15 guests were celebrating the birthday of Yves’ sister when Rosebrock sprayed them all with water.

“I’m videotaping the neighbor throwing water on everyone at Rose’s party,” a woman who was recording the incident can be heard saying in the clip. “I am videotaping Rose’s neighbor throwing water on us.”

Some of the guests can be seen going to the fence to try to calm down Rosebrock.

“He walked back, picked up a hose and hosed me down while I was talking to him,” one woman said.

The party included several Black professionals from various industries, such as music and law. Partygoers said the music was at a reasonable volume, but Rosebrock still became agitated. An unidentified white woman also went to the Duroseau home with a “large, menacing German Shepherd” and “demanded that the music playing in the backyard be turned down,” the lawsuit states.

Mina Q. Malik, who is representing the Duroseaus and the other guests, said she is “in utter disbelief.”

“I was appalled and disgusted that water hosing and German Shepherds were being used against people of color in New York City in 2022,” Malik told The Daily Beast.

Rosebrock’s lawyer, Brandon Gillard, denied that his client is racist.

“Mr. Rosebrock denies any of the allegations in the complaint, and rejects any characterization that he is racist, or [that] his actions were racially motivated,” Gillard told The Daily Beast.

Yves Duroseau was the first doctor in the U.S. to take the COVID-19 vaccine. He is currently serving as chair of Lenox Hill Hospital’s department of emergency medicine in Manhattan. Yves and the other plaintiffs are now seeking monetary damages from Rosebrock, saying that Rosebrock and the woman with the German Shepherd caused mental anguish and emotional distress.

#RacismLawsuit