Newly released body camera footage from a May 2017 incident provides new details about the death of Joseph Perez, a man who died after being restrained by police in Fresno, California.
In his final moments, Perez told the police, “I can’t breathe,” according to a 16-minute video of the incident released on Friday.
In the video, Perez, 41, can be seen in danger, lying face down on the floor while a policeman repeatedly tells him to breathe.
Perez can be heard saying to the officers “help me”. He later died on the way to the hospital.
When the police first saw Perez, they said he looked upset and was standing on the road.
An officer said, “Joseph, we are here to help you.”
A lawsuit filed by the Perez family charges three entities: Fresno County sheriff’s deputies, the Fresno police and the American Ambulance, which, according to the family, asked the police to use a paramedic table to hold him – a maneuver suggested by paramedics to help protect Perez so they could get him to the ambulance.
In the video, a policeman can be seen sitting in Perez. He says, “We need to … sit on that board.”
Michelle Perez, Joseph Perez’s sister, said: “16 minutes was the amount of time I watched while my brother was murdered.”
The chief of police at the time – Andrew Hall – said that an internal investigation did not find the use of excessive force and blames drugs for the death of Perez, who he said “became combative”.
“Mr. Perez was found to have a meth level 24 times higher than the toxic level,” said Hall.
The coroner’s office determined that Perez died of “suffocation during containment”.