Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP / Getty Images
A man who died after being pinned to the floor by police in a Tennessee jail last year repeatedly told officers that he could not breathe , according to a video obtained by CBS Nashville station WTVF .
But officials continued to restrict the man after he was face down and handcuffed , alleges a federal civil rights lawsuit , and after he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe, an officer replied, “I shouldn’t be able to breathe, stupid,” reported CBS News .
In the recording you can see the inmate William Jennette, of 40 years and white, saying “I can’t breathe”, to which a police officer replies: “you shouldn’t be able to breathe, stupid”.
Jennette died in May of 2020 after receiving “a savage and asphyxiating beating” in the Marshall County Prison (Tennessee) , alleges his daughter, Dominique Jennette, in the federal lawsuit that he has filed against seven agents.
The man had been arrested that month for “no offenses Violent Violence Against Members of the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office ”and was waiting to appear before a judge, when died in custody of the authorities.
The autopsy report indicates that Jennette “started fighting with the officers” after the officers entered her cell. Then, the policemen sprayed him twice with pepper spray and immobilized him on the ground.
The video recorded by the prison surveillance cameras and a body that He was carrying a policeman, it shows the inmate struggling with the agents, who beat him and spray him outside his cell.
Shortly afterwards, it can be seen in the recording , two minutes and seconds. and handcuff him.
At that time Jennette complains that she cannot breathe and starts screaming: “help me, they will kill me.”
After one of the officers taunts him, another police officer advises that they have Be careful that they can suffocate him, to which a third official, who has his knee on Jennette’s back, explains that this is why he is not pressing at the height of his pu Mons.
The autopsy report indicates that urgent medical attention was requested and an attempt was made to resuscitate him when the prisoner’s face “changed color.”
Eventually, Jennette was transferred to a hospital, where she passed away shortly after her arrival.
The autopsy says that “the cause of death was acute drug intoxication”, to which “asphyxia” contributed, that is why concludes that “the manner in which he died is consistent with a homicide.”
Jennette demand justice
The lawsuit filed by the family of William Jennette, by 48 years, says Marshall County Sheriffs and Lewisburg Police Officers used excessive force against Jennette during immobilization in the Marshall County Jail in Lewisburg, Tennessee.
The lawsuit alleges that Jennette did not resist and that law enforcement officers should have been trained on the known deadly choking hazards associated with face-down restraint.
“All he wanted was help and all he got was hate. It’s not okay, ”Jennette’s daughter, Calli Jennette , told the station.
With information from CBS News and EFE