An Ohio man died in police custody on April 18 after being handcuffed and left facedown on the floor of a social club. The officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, The Associated Press reports. Police body-camera footage released Wednesday shows a Canton police officer responding to a report of a crash and physically restraining Frank Tyson, a Black, 53-year-old East Canton resident, by the bar in a nearby American Veterans, or AMVETS, post.
Two white officers responded to a crash at about 8 p.m. that night that had severed a utility pole. Officer Beau Schoenegge’s body-camera footage shows that after a passing motorist directed police to the bar, police -- believing Tyson to be the possible driver -- grabbed Tyson, who resisted being handcuffed, saying repeatedly, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff,” as he was taken to the floor. The officers restrained him, with a knee on his back, and he told them 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. Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice advised police to immediately move handcuffed suspects off their stomachs due to the risk of positional asphyxia.