Body camera footage from another incident of police violence in the US revealed that a mentally ill man died an hour after being confronted for at least five minutes by Salt Lake City police in the state of Utah.
The man, 35-year-old Nikon Brandon, was reportedly restrained face down in gravel with a police officer pushing the knee on his neck, evoking memories of the murder of African-American George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer in the course of an arrest in May 2020.
According to 911 call audio released by the department, Salt Lake City police officers were initially called to report a theft attempt and disturbance, with the caller stating that a man attempting to enter the brewery while wearing only his underwear to steal beer.
The man "definitely has mental health issues going on," the 911 caller noted, "so if you have mental health resources send them."
An officer arrived at the Granary District scene, followed Brandon on the sidewalk, and confronted him directly when another officer ran over and kicked him, causing him to fall to the ground close to a curb.
The man then begins to gasp and groan in a gravel area close to the sidewalk as the officers attempt to handcuff him.
“I’m about to ‘tase’ you,” says one officer, referring to a stun gun, and repeating: “Do you want to get ‘tasked’?”
More officers reached the area as Brandon’s beating continued with his face buried in the gravel as he groaned and tried to break out of their hold.
After minutes of brutal confrontation, the officers turned him onto his back, as Brandon appeared unconscious, the footage showed.
“Is he alive?” an officer is heard asking. The footage ends, as officers begin to provide medical aid.
According to a news release from the department, the mentally disabled man was taken to the hospital by ambulance and was reported to be dead less than an hour later.
An outside agency is investigating Brandon’s death, while the police department’s internal affairs unit is also conducting a separate investigation.
“We remain committed to carefully reviewing the findings of the investigation in this case,” Police Chief Mike Brown said in a statement.
“As a forward-thinking department, we will use those findings to evaluate our policies, training and processes to ensure we are making our city safe,” he added.
The development comes in the wake of a similar crackdown earlier this month in the same city in Utah state, when a 40-year-old woman died in the hospital a few days after being stopped by the police.
In a statement after the incident, the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner ruled Meghan Joyce Mohan’s death a homicide, stating that “potential methamphetamine intoxication in the event of a dispute involving physical restraint” had killed the man.
The violence of US police was disposed at Floyd’s murder which led to national outrage about the deaths of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of US law enforcement, triggering nationwide and worldwide protests.
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