An investigation has been launched after video footage emerged Friday showing a Black man shouting “I can’t breathe” while being arrested in Britain last year.
Simeon Francis was arrested in July 2019 in the western English seaside town of Torquay and later released. He died 10 months later while in police custody after he was arrested again in May 2020.
His family provided CNN on Friday with a 19-minute video of last year’s arrest, which shows Francis being handled by at least 10 police officers with several of them pinning him to the ground. He is heard shouting “Get them off me, you racists!” After around 13 minutes, still yelling, he is lifted by the officers and carried into a police van.
Francis also tells officers he “can’t breathe,” a plea that echoes the one made by George Floyd during his death in the United States in May, and which has become a slogan of demonstrators protesting against police brutality around the world.
It is unclear if Francis needed medical attention, why he was being arrested, or what led up to the incident, Desmond Jaddoo, a community activist and representative for the family told CNN. Devon and Cornwall police have not responded to CNN’s requests for comment citing an ongoing investigation.
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