A Shocking body camera footage has emerged, shedding light on the tragic demise of Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old Black man who died in police custody in Canton, Ohio. The distressing video, capturing Tyson’s desperate pleas for help while officers knelt on him, has ignited a firestorm of controversy and renewed calls for police accountability.
The incident unfolded on April 18 when Canton police responded to reports of Tyson allegedly causing an accident by shearing an electrical pole. Confronted at a veterans club, Tyson’s encounter with officers quickly escalated into a chaotic struggle, with him repeatedly insisting, “they are trying to kill me” and begging onlookers to “call the sheriff”
Despite Tyson’s cries for mercy, officers forcibly restrained him. A little over a minute into the struggle, an officer presses his knee into Tyson’s back while another handcuffs him as Tyson gasped for air. Tyson tells the officer to get off of him, insisting: “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”
Shut the fuck up,” one officer can be heard saying in response.
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Tragically, Tyson became unresponsive, yet officers waited a staggering six minutes before initiating CPR.
The Canton Police Department has handed the case over to the Ohio attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation for an independent inquiry. Meanwhile, officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation.
This heartbreaking event echoes past instances of police brutality, like the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, highlighting the urgent need for accountability and reform within law enforcement agencies.
Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice has arned law enforcement officers to promptly reposition handcuffed suspects from their stomachs due to the risk of positional asphyxia.
Experts agree that someone can stop breathing if pinned on their chest for too long or with too much weight because it can compress the lungs and put stress on the heart. However, when done properly, putting someone on their stomach is not inherently life-threatening.
Watch the video below:
NEW: 53-year-old man dies after getting taken to the ground by police and telling them that he couldn’t breathe.
As Ohio man Frank Tyson was motionless on the ground, one officer could be heard bragging about the “bar fight.”
Tyson had just gotten out of prison according to… pic.twitter.com/vGUTHfLHI6
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 26, 2024
