A Florida police department has launched an internal investigation after a video surfaced on social media showing a White Sarasota police officer kneeling on a black man’s neck.
The video was taken on May 18 during the arrest of Patrick Carroll after Sarasota police responded to a domestic issue.
The man, who was arrested on a domestic violence/battery charge, is heard the video yelling “why am I being arrested?” as the officer kneels on him.
“As I’m yelling, and asking, why am I being detained, he started putting his knee on my neck,” Patrick Carroll said in an interview with CNN affiliate WFTS.
Carroll said he suffers from asthma and scoliosis, and he was having trouble breathing.
“While he’s saying I’m resisting, I’m just moving around so I can have circulation in my body and my throat,” he said.
In the cellphone video taken by a bystander during the May 18th incident, two officers were filmed attempting to take him into custody in an aggressive manner. At one point, one of the two officers is then seen kneeling on the head and neck of the man after they pinned him down to the ground.
A third officer later came to the scene to help his two other colleagues to take the man into custody.