Not Again! Video Captures ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Death of a Black Man
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Similarities to the police killing of George Floyd are plain as day: officers ignoring a Black man, face down in handcuffs, crying out, “I can’t breathe” before his body goes lifeless.
The body-cam footage of Frank Tyson’s last moments is yet another illustration in the ongoing history of “systemic police violence against Black men,” Bobby DiCello, the attorney representing Tyson’s family, said as he demanded answers from the police.
The disturbing footage released by authorities begins with Canton, Ohio police officers responding to a report of a single-car crash on April 18 at about 8:25 p.m. and finding the wrecked car unoccupied with the driver’s side door open, according to WTV11.
The video shows a man in a white van driving up and telling the police that the driver is at an AMVETS lodge down the street from the crash site. When the cops arrive at the lodge, a woman urges them to remove Tyson, 53, who was presumably acting erratic.
As officers approach, Tyson is heard telling them to get the sheriff before tussling with the officers who are trying to handcuff him.
“They’re trying to kill me. They’re trying to kill me,” Tyson shouts.
After handcuffing Tyson behind the back with his chest on the ground, an officer appears to put his knee on Tyson’s back for about 30 seconds as Tyson says, “I can’t breathe” several times.
The officers leave Tyson face down on the floor, apparently ignoring his pleas. Tyson lies motionless on the ground as one of the officers is heard chatting with people in the bar. More than five minutes later, an officer checks Tyson’s pulse, but it’s apparently too late.
About three minutes pass before the officers begin performing CPR while awaiting paramedics. Tyson was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities identified the arresting officers as Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch; both are on paid administrative leave during the investigation.
Canton Mayor William Sherer met with Tyson’s family to share the video before releasing it to the public and offered condolences, NBC News reported. He vowed transparency as the Ohio Bureau of Investigation conducts an independent probe.
DiCello, pointed to parallels between Tyson’s in-custody killing and Floyd’s murder in 2020 by former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin.
“It’s an unimaginable tragedy, that only four years later history repeats itself. Why tackle him? Why kneel on him? How could you know he lost consciousness and then do nothing? These questions demand answers. And so, we will get those answers for Frank and the whole Tyson family in this time of pain, grief, and disbelief,” the Canton Repository newspaper quoted DiCello.
