A man from Ohio, Frank Tyson, died in police custody last week after being handcuffed and left face down on the floor of a social club. The officers involved are now under investigation. The police body camera footage released on Wednesday showed a police officer from Canton responding to a report of a traffic accident and finding Tyson, a 53-year-old resident of eastern Canton, in a bar near the American Veterans club.
The officer’s body camera footage revealed that after a witness directed police toward the bar, a woman asked them to remove Tyson from the premises. Police grabbed Tyson, who resisted being handcuffed and expressed that he felt they were trying to harm him. He repeatedly said, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff” as they took him to the ground. Officers pinned him down with a knee in his back, and he immediately told them that he couldn’t breathe.
Despite Tyson’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe, the officers reassured him that he was fine and told him to calm down. They joked with passersby before realizing that Tyson was in a medical crisis. Five minutes after hearing Tyson say “I can’t breathe,” one officer asked if he had calmed down, to which the other replied, “Maybe he is dead.”
An autopsy was performed on Tyson earlier in the week, and his remains were turned over to a funeral home. He had recently been released from state prison after serving 24 years in a kidnapping and robbery case. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office of Criminal Investigation is looking into the incident.
The use of force by the officers will be evaluated, and charges related to the incident will be decided by either prosecutor or grand jury. The mayor of Canton expressed condolences to Tyson’s family while emphasizing transparency in their community. It has been brought up again how placing suspects face down increases risks positional asphyxiation as per United States Justice Department warning against this technique.
An investigation by The Associated Press found that more than 1000 people have died over a decade after being subdued by non-lethal means including face-down restraints.
It is crucial for law enforcement agencies worldwide to ensure that those who are taken into custody are treated humanely and safely without causing harm or fatalities due to lack of proper training or improper use of force techniques like positional restraints.
