MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A black man has died in Minneapolis police custody after video shared online from a bystander showed a white officer kneeling on his neck during his arrest as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.
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His death, which occurred Monday night after a struggle with police officers, was under investigation Tuesday by the FBI and state agents.
Officers were called about 8 p.m. Monday to investigate a report of a forgery at a business, according to police spokesman John Elder. Police found the man, believed to be in his 40s, matching the suspect’s description in his car.
“He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers,” Elder said in a statement. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
The man, who was not identified, was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died a short time later, police said.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has joined the FBI in its investigation. All body camera footage has been turned over to the BCA, which investigates most police shootings and in-custody deaths. The officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave, per department protocol.
Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a prominent local activist, said watching the footage that was shared on social media made her “sick to her stomach” and called the incident another example of police brutality toward African American men, the Star Tribune reported.
“Whatever the man may have done should not have ended in a death sentence,” she said. “What started as an alleged economic incident once again turned deadly for a black man.”
Levy-Armstrong said the incident reminded her of the Eric Garner case. He was an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life saying he couldn’t breathe. A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved, sparking protests around the country.
Police in Minneapolis have come under the microscope in recent years for deadly run-ins with citizens. A 24-year-old black man, Jamar Clark, was shot in the head and died in 2015 after a confrontation with two white officers responding to a reported assault. A county prosecutor declined to prosecute the officers, saying Clark was struggling for one of the officers’ gun when he was shot.
A white woman, Justine Rusczcyk Damond, died in 2017 when she was shot in the stomach by a Minneapolis officer responding to her 911 call. That officer, who is black, was convicted of manslaughter and murder and is serving a 12-year prison sentence.
The police shooting victim, in the 2017 casem involved an Australian woman, Justin Damond; she called 911, because she heard screams near her home, and thought someone was being attacked. When the cops came, she knocked on the patrol car to alert them that she called. The cop, who was a passenger (not the driver), immediately opened fire on the woman, and shot and killed her. At his trial, there were expert police witnesses who stated that the cop (an immigrant from Somalia), used atrocious judgment, as the woman did not pose any threat. He was lucky that he was a cop, as he only received twelve years. If it had been a civilian in a similar case, the person would have received twice that amount of jail time.
Watched the video. That was criminally negligent homicide, if not manslaughter. Officer was rocking back and forth to increase the compression even after the guy said he couldn’t breathe. He had not been struggling just before that point although he may have initially. Officer was looking around casually and certainly not in fear of his safety.
I’m generally pro-cop but that cop should be prosecuted and the other one should be severely disciplined if he isn’t fired outright.