April 14 Police Brutality Protest View Full Caption

UNION SQUARE — Hundreds of demonstrators marched from Union Square to the NYPD's Lower Manhattan Headquarters on Tuesday, momentarily shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge just before the evening rush hour in a mass protest against the recent spate of police-involved killings.

Brooklyn Bridge is essentially shut down Manhattan bound #ShutDownA14 pic.twitter.com/XX93Yi9dLV — L Mazzei (@515LM) April 14, 2015

The protests kicked off at approximately 2 p.m. and wound south along Broadway. By 4:30, some demonstrators headed to the Brooklyn Bridge roadway, where they blocked traffic, according to tweets on social media.

“We just want the police to stop killing people,” said Bronx resident Billie Banks, 24. “They are killing innocent people for no reason.”

Police arrested 42 people on or near Brooklyn Bridge, allowing traffic to resume, an NYPD spokesman said Wednesday morning.

Group of protestors getting arrested after blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. #shutdowna14 #protest #nyc #newyorkcity #instanyc @dnainfonyc A photo posted by @fractenberg on Apr 14, 2015 at 2:17pm PDT

One officer injured a knee while making an arrest, though an NYPD spokesman did know where the incident occurred.

And an off-duty sergeant suffered minor injuries after getting into a scuffle with two protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge, the spokesman added.

The sergeant was treated at a local hospital and released. Police did not have an immediate description of the protestors.

The demonstrators included leading scholar Dr. Cornel West, who addressed hundreds of protesters in Union Square and spoke, in part, about his frustration with black leadership nationally.

“Don’t be confused by some black faces in high places,” West said. “For seven years there has been black and brown brothers and sisters shot down by the police. Black president, black attorney general, black head security of homeland and not one policeman sent to jail.”

The march was mainly peaceful down Broadway, though a few protesters who tried to walk through a line of police officers on scooters were pushed back.

Protesters carried two giant banners with pictures of people killed by police during a national day of action on Tuesday. The demonstration comes after the most recent killing of an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina.