Compton Deputies Pin Black Man To The Ground In Disturbing Video

A video of a man being arrested by umpteen deputies has sparked in investigation at Compton Sheriff’s Department.

The footage, posted to Instagram on Wednesday, showed a man being detained on a suspected drug offense — and it is very difficult to count just how many officers pile on top of him.

The video opens with two deputies on top of the lone Black man in the middle of the road, who is shouting for help and repeating “I cant breathe!” The officers tell him to “shut up.”

One of the deputies is kneeling on his arm and putting his weight on his shoulder, while the other has his forearm pressed into his spine, grabbing his hair and forcing his face against the tarmac.

A witness who is filming begs the officers: “Just let him stand up guys, he’ll be alright. Fellas just let him up!”; one officer tells the filmer to back up, while the other says “You can film all you want.”

Exactly 20 seconds in, a second squad car arrives, sirens blaring, almost losing control as it turns the corner at such high speed; a third officer jumps out while the car is still moving and sprints towards the fray.

Although the man’s legs appear to be doing nothing besides quivering in pain, the third officer dives on with both knees and proceeds to hogtie the suspect’s legs.

A fourth officer then runs to join in, but the first officer loudly redirects him to “recover the dope… He just threw all the dope over there,” pointing as he emphasized the word “dope” twice.

“OK that’s fine, that’s dope; don’t kill him for having no dope,” the witness pleads. “Just handcuff him!”

Within one minute there are five cop cars on the street, and countless officers running toward the pile on. At least six can be counted at one point on top of the suspect, completely obscuring him from view.

The officers that cannot fit on top of him, approximately a dozen more, then begin to form a barrier around the scene, appearing to continuously walk in front of the witness to prevent him from filming.

“He can’t breathe brother!” the witness tells one of the blocking officers. “He can breathe,” he replies. “He’s talking, right?”

As the filmer’s protests fall on deaf ears, one deputy announces aloud: “My life matters.”

Two minutes into the video, even more officers can be seen arriving, some of them now strapping on tactical vests.

A watch commander at Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Compton Station told CBS Los Angeles the incident was under investigation.

“The man was saying that he couldn’t breathe, so it is concerning to see that type of response when you’re trying to apprehend someone,” Compton Mayor Aja Brown told the broadcaster. “I just believe that there has to be better training.”

Brown even raised the possibility of cutting ties with the sheriff’s department.

“For me, it’s just concerning that this is a much bigger, a deeper and more widespread issue,” she said. “We’re committed as city leadership to get more information. We sent notification to request all the documentation regarding deputy complaints so that we can just understand the nature of issues with our officers in the community.”

TooFab reached out to Compton Station to find out if the suspect had been released or charged; they told us to call the Watch Commander. We called the Watch Commander, he told us to call the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. We called the Sheriff’s Information Bureau, they told us to call Compton Station.

Compton police are already under scrutiny after this video circulated showing the violent arrest of another Black man, Dalvin Price, on May 31.

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