CANTON, Ohio — Funeral services will be held Wednesday for an Ohio man who died in police custody last month after being handcuffed and lying face down on the floor of a social club.
The Rev. Al Sharpton was scheduled to deliver the eulogy for Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old East Canton resident, at Hear The Word Ministries church in Canton. He died April 18 after bodycam video released by police showed him resisting while handcuffed, repeatedly saying, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff,” as he was laid on the ground.
Tyson, who was black, was taken into custody shortly after a car accident in which a utility pole was severed. Police body camera footage showed that after a passing motorist led officers to the bar, a woman opened the door and said, “Please get him out of here.”
Police restrained Tyson – including with a knee on his back – and he immediately told officers he couldn’t breathe. A recent Associated Press investigation found that these words – “I can’t breathe” – were ignored in other cases of deaths in police custody.
Officers told Tyson he was fine, to calm down and stop fighting as he lay face down and crossed on the carpet. Police joked with bystanders and went through Tyson’s wallet before realizing he was in a medical crisis.
Five minutes after body camera footage recorded Tyson saying, “I can’t breathe,” one officer asked another if Tyson had calmed down. The other replied, “Maybe he’s gone.”
The two Canton officers involved, who are white, have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Tyson was released from state prison on April 6 after serving 24 years in a kidnapping and robbery case and was almost immediately declared a post-release supervision violator for failing to report to a probation officer, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation said in a statement last month that the investigation will not determine whether force was justified and that the prosecutor or a grand jury will decide whether charges related to the use of force are warranted.
