Bodycam footage shows Ohio police officers handcuffed a Black man and left him facedown on the floor as he told officers that he couldn’t breathe—before he died minutes later in police custody.
According to the Associated Press, Canton Police Department released the video of the incident that showed 53-year-old Frank Tyson being physically restrained by the police officers as he repeatedly shouted, “They’re trying to kill me! They’re trying to kill me!”
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also yelled out, “Call the sheriff!” multiple times as he struggled on the ground at a bar. As he was cuffed, Tyson told the officers that he “can’t breathe” several times as one of the officers had his knee on his neck.As he lay on the ground, an officer tells him he’s fine, but in the video it appears that Tyson no longer moves. After several minutes of talking to other people in the bar, when an officer went to check on him, he realizes that Tyson was no longer breathing.
The two traffic bureau officers involved in the incident, Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch, both white, were reportedly placed on paid administrative leave.
The footage showed police officers arriving on the scene of an accident. Bystanders instructed the officers that Tyson had gone to the bar. The incident happened April 18 at around 8:20 p.m. in East Canton, Ohio.
A police report issued on April 19 stated that officers wrote that “shortly after securing him,” they “recognized that Tyson had become unresponsive” and that CPR was performed. They said they administered doses of Narcan before the medics arrived. Tyson was pronounced dead less than an hour later at a local hospital.
In an April 25 statement, the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation said it is investigating the incident but would not determine if force was justified. The prosecuting attorney or a grand jury would bring charges if it’s determined that the use of force was warranted.
Canton Mayor William V. Sherer II released a statement on April 24: “As we make it through this challenging time, my goal is to be as transparent with the community as possible.”
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