'I can't breathe:' Bodycam captures handcuffed black man Frank Tyson's final words as police knelt on his back

07:31 EDT 26 Apr 2024, updated 09:15 EDT 26 Apr 2024 By Miriam Kuepper

A police bodycam has captured the final words of handcuffed black man Frank Tyson as police knelt on his back.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Tyson, 53, died in police custody after being arrested facedown on the floor of a social club last week.

Footage has now revealed that Tyson was telling officers: 'I can't breathe,' eerily echoing the words of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 caused widespread Black Lives Matter protests.

The bodycam video of Tyson's arrest was released on Wednesday and shows officers responding to a report of a crash and Tyson, from East Canton, Ohio, by the bar in a nearby American Veterans, or AMVETS, post.

The crash at about 8pm on April 18 and involved a single car that had severed a utility pole.

A passing motorist directed police to the bar after Tyson allegedly fled the scene of the crash. Officer Beau Schoenegge's body-camera footage shows a woman opening the door to the venue, who said: 'Please get him out of here, now.'

Police grabbed Tyson, and he resisted being handcuffed and said repeatedly, 'They're trying to kill me' and 'Call the sheriff,' as he was taken to the floor.

They restrained him - including with a knee on his back - and he immediately told officers he could not breathe.

Officers told Tyson he was fine, to calm down and to stop fighting as he was facedown with his legs crossed on the carpeted floor.

Police were joking with bystanders and leafing through Tyson's wallet before realizing he was in a medical crisis.

Five minutes after the body-camera footage recorded Tyson saying 'I can't breathe,' one officer asked another if Tyson had calmed down. The other replied, 'He might be out.'

Tyson did not move when an officer told him to stand and tried to roll him over. They shook him and checked for a pulse.

Minutes later, an officer said medics needed to 'step it up' because Tyson was not responding and the officer was unsure if he could feel a pulse. Officers began CPR.

The Canton police report about Tyson's death that was issued Friday said that 'shortly after securing him,' officers 'recognized that Tyson had become unresponsive' and that CPR was performed. Doses of Narcan were also administered before medics arrived. Tyson was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour later.

Chief investigator Harry Campbell with the Stark County Coroner's Office said Thursday an autopsy was conducted earlier in the week and Tyson's remains were released to a funeral home.

His niece, Jasmine Tyson, called the video 'nonsense' in an interview with WEWS-TV in Cleveland. 'It just seemed like forever that they finally checked him,' Jasmine Tyson said.

Both Canton Police Department traffic bureau officers who were placed on leave, Schoenegge and Camden Burch, are white, according to the police department.

Frank Tyson was released from state prison on April 6 after serving 24 years on a kidnapping and theft case and was almost immediately declared a post-release control supervision violator for failing to report to a parole officer, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5521675&forum_id=2#47610871)