A video suddenly reminds the George Floyd affair.
Police in Alameda, a town near San Francisco, California (United States), released a video on Wednesday evening, April 28, showing officers pinning a man to the ground for more than 5 minutes, an intervention tragically concluded by the death of the arrested person.
The circumstances of the death on April 19 of Mario Gonzalez are reminiscent of the murder of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis, suffocated by the pressure of the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin.
Alameda police initially claimed the 26-year-old had died of a "medical emergency", promising a transparent and independent investigation into the facts.
But the family of the young man, a resident of Oakland, categorically rejected this explanation, after viewing the video of the arrest.
"What I saw is different from what I was told," said Gerardo Gonzalez, the victim's brother, as quoted by local television station KTVU.
"The medical emergency was due to the fact that they were on his back while he was lying on the ground."
Heart massage attempted, in vain
The video, shot by the pedestrian camera of one of the police officers, shows the officers attempting to handcuff Mario Gonzalez in a public garden, after the obese and apparently confused man did not hand them his identification papers.
The police, to control him, then tackle him to the ground.
One of them exerts a long pressure with his knee on Mario Gonzalez's shoulder blade, another pressing with his elbow on his back.
"I didn't do anything," he moaned, alternating howls and groans, before losing consciousness.
Noting his vital distress, the agents began a cardiac massage, in vain.
With AFP
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