Overheard on the interwebs:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/42355/david-sal-silva-video-confiscated-by-police-officers-shows-them-beating-man-to-death
2nd: The most unreliable witness is an “eyewitness” because they are colored by their perspectives.
From the article in the NYTimes cited, “having hogtied him...” Police do not “hogtie” anyone. That is an emotional term and not the least accurate, by definition, hog tieing involves binding the hands and feet together.
I note in the article, “the two phones were confiscated in accordance with search warrants and had been handed over to the Bakersfield Police Department as part of the investigation.”
The witness stated Silva was non-compliant and continuing to resist the officers before they struck him.
Sounds like positional asphyxiation to me, a danger when large people are handcuffed face down.
I guess all those episodes of "Cops" where they put especially feisty individuals tied hands-to-feet into the back of the Police cars were not "real." They sure as heck *do* "hogtie" perps.
If the phones in this story were obtained with warrants, that's proper. I think what's being alleged is the information in a phone was destroyed or altered.