“I can’t breathe” – Sad video shows Black man’s last words as Police handcuffed him and knelt on him before he died

Police knelt on Frank Tyson’s back until he passed out, and bodycam footage captured his final words while he was detained as a black man has been made public.

Last week, on April 18, Tyson, an Ohio guy, was shackled and placed facedown on the floor of a social club.

The officers implicated have been placed on paid administrative leave following his death while in police custody.

The 53-year-old East Canton resident Frank Tyson was discovered by the bar of a local AMVETS post by a Canton police officer responding to an accident report, according to body camera footage made public on Wednesday, April 24.

About eight o’clock on April 18, a utility pole was severed in the incident.

Officer Beau Schoenegge’s body-camera footage shows that after a passing motorist directed police to the bar, a woman opened the door and 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.

Police assured Tyson he was okay. He was facedown on the carpeted floor with his knees crossed, and they were pleading with him to quit fighting and calm down.

Before determining that Tyson was experiencing a medical emergency, police were making jokes with onlookers and going through his wallet.

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 then began CPR. 

The Canton police report about Tyson’s death that was issued Friday, April 26, 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. 

Tyson telling officers he was unable to breathe echoes the events preceding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020. 

Tyson was Black, according to the coroner’s office. The race of the police officers has not been confirmed.