MINNEAPOLIS _ The FBI has joined the investigation into the in-custody death of a man on Minneapolis' South Side Monday evening, who was seen in a bystander's video repeatedly telling police he couldn't breathe as they held him down.
The man, whose identity wasn't released but who is thought to be in his 40s, died at a nearby hospital a short time after the incident, during which he suffered a medical episode while struggling with officers, police spokesman John Elder said.
Elder did not elaborate on whether the man had any pre-existing medical conditions, but said that he appeared to be under the influence of something. Elder told reporters at a late-night news conference outside City Hall that officers tried to resuscitate the man at the scene, but said he was limited in what he could divulge because the case was being handled by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
The chain of events that led to the man's death started about 8 p.m. Monday, when police were called to investigate a report of forgery at a business in the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue and found the man matching the suspect's description sitting in his car, Elder said. Officers ordered him out of the car and took him into custody, Elder said, adding that their body cameras were turned on.
The man initially complied, but then "physically resisted" officers, Elder said. After they handcuffed him, officers noticed that the man was in "medical distress," Elder said, and an ambulance was called to the scene.
"At no point were weapons of any kind used," Elder said.
He later walked back some of those statements, saying they were based on preliminary information.
"We try to put out information as quickly as possibly, information that we wholly believe to be honest and true." he said. "And as we're looking a little further we're realizing there's more to this."
He continued: "As we started digging into this and seeing more we realized that the FBI needed to aid in this investigation. We called and they readily agreed."
All body camera footage has been turned over to the BCA, which investigates most police shootings and in-custody deaths, and the officers involved have been put on paid administrative leave. Their names haven't been released publicly.
"Whatever the investigation reveals, it will not change the fact that he should be here today," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, adding that officers are sworn to protect.
In the meantime, the department will also likely undertake its own internal investigation into whether they followed policy on use of force.
Elder added that the technique used was not a department-authorized chokehold.
"In my years as an officer, that would not be what I would ever consider a chokehold," said Elder, who is a part-time sheriff's deputy in another county.
The incident was streamed on Facebook Live, where the archived footage had been watched 33,000 times as of Tuesday morning. Activists and community members say the video casts doubt on the police's account and raises questions about whether their aggressive takedown of the man resulted in his death.
The video captures the scene from behind a police SUV, showing an unidentified officer kneeling on the man's neck and ignoring his protests that he couldn't breathe.
"Please, please, please I can't breathe. Please, man," the man is heard telling the officer, his voice sounding strained.
By then, several other witnesses had gathered on the sidewalk outside of Cup Foods, with several recording the scene on their phones. "Bro, you've got him down, let him breathe at least, man," one bystander is heard telling police.
After several minutes, one of the officers is heard telling the man to "relax."
"Man, I can't breathe," the man responds.
"What do you want?" the officer asks.
"I can't breathe," the man says, telling bystanders that he can't get up and asking officers for water. "My stomach hurt, my neck hurt, everything hurts."
At one point, the video cuts out, before resuming several minutes later. The footage doesn't capture what led to the man's arrest, only picking up after he has already been taken to the ground and is in handcuffs.
As the incident drags on, the group of bystanders becomes increasingly agitated, yelling at the officers to let the man go.
One of the officers is then shown moving away from the others to tell the crowd to "get back on the sidewalk." As he moves toward them, one of the bystanders points out the man no longer seems to be moving.
About the same time, paramedics arrive and put the man onto a gurney and into a waiting ambulance.
The incident threatened to reignite tensions between police and minority communities that reached a boiling point in 2015 after the death of Jamar Clark.
Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a prominent local activist, said watching the footage made her "sick to her stomach" and called the incident another example of police brutality toward African American men.
"It just reminds me of Eric Garner once again: a black man being accosted by police and pleading for his life saying he couldn't breathe," she said, referring to an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after being placed in a police chokehold. "I'm fully convinced that if police wouldn't have been called to the scene, then he would still be alive."
A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved, sparking protests around the country. Chokeholds had technically been banned since 1993, but a 2015 report found that the tactic was still commonly used by the city's officers.
DeVondre Pike, who posted video of the incident's aftermath on his Facebook page, said that while the confrontation ended in front of Cup Foods he thinks it started somewhere else.
"When I showed up they weren't in front of Cup Foods, the police were across the street next to (a) blue Mercedes," he said via Facebook Messenger.
Levy-Armstrong said she was told by witnesses at the scene that the man who died had been involved in some sort of a dispute with the owner of a convenience store across the street before police were called. Whether or not this was true, she said police could have handled the incident differently.
A protest is planned at the intersection Tuesday.
"Whatever the man may have done should not have ended in a death sentence," she said. "What started as an alleged economic incident once again turned deadly for a black man."
Though most police fatalities in the past two decades have been the result of shootings, several other people have died in police custody.
In 2002, two officers used an authorized chokehold on 44-year-old Christopher Burns to try to restrain him during a domestic dispute, and he died within minutes after being put in handcuffs.
In 2008, Tommie Baker, a 39-year-old cook, choked on a bag of crack cocaine he had in his mouth after an officer kneed him four times in the rib cage during a traffic stop. Later that year, Quincy Smith, 24, died of cardiorespitatory arrest after he was stunned with a Taser, wrestled to the ground and subdued by officers responding to a call of a domestic assault involving a man with a gun.
Then two years later, David Smith, 28, who had bipolar disorder, died of asphyxiation after police were called on him for a harassing complaint and the responding officers used a Taser, handcuffed and restrained him on the floor. The officers involved were cleared of wrongdoing, but the city paid out $3 million settlement to Smith's family.
