But he did pass out and just because he didn’t pass out immediately when the knee was put on his neck doesn’t mean the officer didn’t accidentally or intentionally increase the pressure in the 30 seconds before he became “non-responsive”.
What we do know is that the officer kept his knee on the man’s neck for another 2 minutes and 58 seconds after that.
“Occlusion of or injury to one carotid artery may cause neurological deficits on the contralateral side. These include changes in vision, ptosis, facial droop, and unilateral weakness. If strangulation results in hypoxia, patients may have mental status changes and incontinence.”
https://www.acepnow.com/article/how-to-evaluate-strangulation/?singlepage=1
Mental status changes and incontinence... calling for his mother and lost bladder control.
The autopsy and tox report will go a long way to answering that question.
The guy was out of his mind on something, and based on the video, I’d suspect he was shermed out, and probably had some alcohol on board as well. And weed.
Watching the video, I can’t see any animus on the part of the officers, just dealing with a very large, and very intoxicated suspect. Once he decided he didn’t want to go in the car, and went to the ground, the decision was made to just keep him immobilized until fire could get there for medical attention.
That’s the obvious question that isn’t in the record at this time: when did they call for fire? He was on the ground for less than 10 minutes, so someone on the PD must have called, at latest, as soon as he went down.
I wouldn’t have chosen to use the neck restraint, but that’s easy to say sitting in my den sipping a cold iced tea. Is an investigation warrented? Of course. Is the video dispositive evidence of incompetence or malice? No way.
Yeah, PCP will do that too.