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United States: an African-American dies of suffocation under the knee of a police officer
United States: Frank Tyson, an African-American dies of suffocation under the knee of a police officer
(FRANCE TELEVISIONS)
This case recalls the arrest and death of George Floyd in 2020, which then marked American society.
“You’re on my neck.” Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old African-American, died following an arrest in Ohio on April 18, reported several media outlets including the Reuters agency, Saturday April 27, and the American channel CBS News.
The police intervened following a road accident in Canton: Frank Tyson had torn down a power pole with his car. Arrested on the side of the road, the man who had recently been in prison and was on parole, had found refuge in a nearby bar. That’s where the police found him, quite agitated, according to images filmed by the camera worn by one of the officers.
The two police officers placed on administrative leave
“Please get him out of here now.”, asks a woman to the police. The latter then question Frank Tyson. The intervention is muscular. He is pinned to the ground and handcuffed. One of the police officers places a knee on his neck to immobilize him. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe”, says the fifty-year-old. After several minutes, Frank Tyson is inert. The police attempted cardiac massage but the man was pronounced dead at the hospital, an hour after his arrest.
The two officers involved, Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch, have been placed on administrative leave. The Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) was charged with conducting an independent investigation into this matter.
“I can’t breathe”, also said George Floyd
The circumstances of Frank Tyson’s death are his last words (“I can’t breathe” [“Je ne peux pas respirer”]), are reminiscent of that of George Floyd: this 46-year-old African-American died during his arrest in May 2020 in Minneapolis. This tragedy, which gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, had a profound impact on American society.
Derek Chauvin, the police officer involved in the arrest of George Floyd, was sentenced in 2021 to 22 and a half years in prison for murder. “This verdict is a step in the fight against racist police violence”estimated Charlotte Recoquillon, researcher at the French Institute of Geopolitics, specialist in racial issues in the United States.