BREAKING News: Restrained man pleads with police in fatal incident in Minnesota

Raw video: Man pleads with Minneapolis police that he can't breathe while an officer presses his knee into the back of his neck. The man was taken to a hospital but died a short time later.

Mayor Jacob Frey said four officers involved in the restraint of a black man who died have been fired.

The man who died was identified as George Floyd by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyd’s family.

He died in police custody after video captured him pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck and kept his knee there for several minutes after the man stopped moving.

Here’s a little more on the policy of kneeling on a suspect’s neck:

In Minneapolis, kneeling on a suspect’s neck is allowed under the department’s use-of-force policy for officers who have received training in how to compress a neck without applying direct pressure to the airway. It is considered a “non-deadly force option,” according to the department’s policy handbook.

A chokehold is considered a deadly force option and involves someone obstructing the airway. According to the department’s use-of-force policy, officers are to use only an amount of force necessary that would be objectively reasonable.

I doubt they’ve had much time to do a thorough investigation, but there may have been enough video evidence for them to draw fireable conclusions. I just hope this isn’t a rash and uniformed decision.

In the article we posted this morning, it had stated that the man died at the hospital. But according to this report the man died in police custody, which sounds like it means he was already dead when the ambulance carted him away.

If these officers could be fired for this, then my guess is the next step is prosecution. We’ll let you know when/if that happens.