Recently released body camera footage of a May 2017 incident provides new details about the death of Joseph Perez, a man who died after being restrained by law enforcement in Fresno, California.
In his final moments, Perez told officers, “I can’t breathe,” according to a 16-minute video of the incident released Friday.
In the video, Perez, 41, can be seen anxiously lying face down on the floor while an agent repeatedly tells him to breathe.
You can hear Pérez saying to the agents, “help me.” He later died on the way to the hospital.
When officers first saw Perez, they said he looked upset and was standing on the sidewalk.
One officer said, “Joseph, we’re here to help you.”
A lawsuit filed by Pérez’s family blames three entities: Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputies, Fresno Police, and the U.S. Ambulance, which the family says asked police to use the Fresno County Board. a paramedic to keep him stationary; in the ambulance.
In the video you can see an officer sitting in Pérez. He says, “We have to … sit at this board.”
Michelle Perez, Joseph Perez’s sister, said, “16 minutes was the time I saw my brother being murdered.”
Police chief at the time, Andrew Hall, said an internal investigation showed no excessive force was used and blamed the drugs for Perez’s death, saying he “became combative. “.
“It was found that Mr. Perez had a level of methamphetamine that was 24 times the toxic level,” Hall said.
The coroner’s office determined that Perez died of “suffocation during restraint.”