A Sarasota, Florida, police officer is under investigation after a video surfaced on social media showing him kneeling on a black man’s neck during an arrest.
In the nearly 90-second cellphone video taken by a bystander during the May 18 incident, three officers can be seen attempting to take a male individual into custody. One of the two officers is then seen kneeling on the head and neck of the man.
The man, who was arrested on a domestic violence/battery charge, is heard yelling, “Why am I being arrested?” as the officer kneels on him.
“As I’m yelling, and asking, ‘Why am I being detained,’ he started putting his knee on my neck,” Patrick Carroll said in an interview with CNN affiliate WFTS.
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The video surfaced as protests are underway across the nation seeking justice and reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death, which an independent autopsy attributed to officers kneeling on him during his arrest. Video showed an officer with a knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
After a review of several videos, Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino immediately initiated a formal internal affairs investigation, the department said.
The officer, who had not been identified, has been placed on administrative leave.
Watch the report below from ABC Action News:
