This is the moment a burly white cop bodyslams a cancer-stricken black woman to the ground and then apparently squats on her neck to pin her there.
As he bears down on the middle-aged victim in a mall car park she screams out in fear: “I can’t breathe.”
The footage – from police bodycams in Los Angeles, in the US state of California – seems to be a chilling echo of the death of George Floyd in 2020.
He died after police officer Derek Chauvin – later convicted of his murder – jammed his knee into his neck restricting his breathing and blood flow.
The new footage was recorded in a mall car park on 24th June as two officers were restraining the woman’s husband in handcuffs.
As she attempts to film the scene on her phone, one of the officers tries to snatch it away and then shoves her painfully to the ground.
As he apparently pushes down on her neck, she can be heard screaming: “I can’t breathe.”
And she cries out: “Stop manhandling me! I didn’t do nothing!”
But instead of backing down the officer tells her: “Stop or you’re going to get punched in the face.”
After trying to put her in handcuffs, he takes out a can of pepper spray and shoots it into her face.
As she screams in pain he tells her: “Put your hands behind your back. You’re going to get sprayed again.”
Then as he drags her to the patrol car blinded by the pepper spray he again tells her to stop resisting but she screams: “I’m not fighting. I can’t see where I’m going.”
Meanwhile, the other officer is seen in his bodycam footage restraining her terrified husband who can be heard shouting: “I’m not going to fight you. That’s my wife, she’s got cancer.”
And after the woman is bundled into the back of one of the two police vehicles on the scene, she says: “I’m not going to be able to breathe because I have asthma.”
Phone images reportedly showing the incident prompted outrage after being shared online.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) released the bodycam footage as part of their internal investigation.
The deputies were reportedly responding to a robbery taking place at a WinCo Foods grocery store.
The couple reportedly matched descriptions of the suspects, according to local media.
The LASD called the images “disturbing” in a press release announcing the probe into the incident on 3rd July.
The department said: “Sheriff [Robert] Luna has made it clear that he expects Department personnel to treat all members of the public with dignity and respect, and that personnel who do not uphold our training standards will be held accountable.”
Both officers have been taken off duty pending review, the LASD said.
A protest is reportedly being held by the Community Action League – geared towards protecting American citizens’ and civil rights – and other groups at the grocery store today 5th July at 5pm.
Protesters are reportedly demanding that the two deputies be fired.
It is currently unclear if either of the two victims plan to sue the LASD. It is also currently unclear if the suspected robbers were detained.
The police investigation is ongoing.
