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FBI Joins Probe of Black Man Killed During Police Encounter in Minnesota

VOA News

   The FBI and other law enforcement authorities are investigating the
   case of an African American man who died after he was pinned to the
   ground while handcuffed and a white police officer kneeled on his neck
   as the victim pleaded he could not breath.
   The death, which occurred in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis,
   Minnesota, is the latest of numerous instances of black men in America
   dying during or after encounters with white police.
   A bystander shared the video of the incident online.
   Minneapolis Police Department spokesman John Elder said officers were
   called to investigate a report of a forgery at a business on Monday
   evening. Elder said the man "physically resisted" arrest and died at a
   local hospital.
   A police department statement said the officers called for an ambulance
   after the victim "appeared to be suffering medical distress."
   The video shows that after several minutes of the victim pleading that
   he could not breathe, one of the officers is heard telling the man to
   "relax." After several more minutes, the man becomes motionless while
   still under the officer's restraint.
   Mayor Jacob Frey took to Facebook to apologize to the black community,
   declaring that "Being Black in America should not be a death sentence."
   "For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a
   Black man's neck," added Frey. "Five minutes. When you hear someone
   calling for help, you're supposed to help. This officer failed in the
   most basic, human sense."
   Monday's death drew comparisons to Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in
   New York who died in 2014 after a white officer placed him in a
   chokehold while he begged for his life and said numerous times he could
   not breathe.
   The Minneapolis man's death also follows that of Ahmaud Arbery, who was
   fatally shot in the southeastern state of Georgia February 23 by
   Gregory McMichael, a white former Glynn County police officer, who
   later was an investigator with the local district attorney's office,
   and his son.

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