The Rev. Al Sharpton to give eulogy for Ohio man who died last month while in police custody

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Funeral services will be held Wednesday for an Ohio man who died in police custody last month after he was handcuffed and left facedown on the floor of a social club.

The Rev. Al Sharpton was due to give the eulogy for Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old East Canton resident, at the Hear The Word Ministries church in Canton. He died April 18 after bodycam video released by police show he resisted while being handcuffed and said repeatedly, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff,” as he was taken to the floor.

Tyson, who was Black, was taken into custody shortly after a vehicle crash that had severed a utility pole. Police body-camera footage showed that after a passing motorist directed officers to the bar, a woman opened the door and said: “Please get him out of here, now.”

Police restrained Tyson — including with a knee on his back — and he immediately told officers he could not breathe. A recent Associated Press investigation found those words — “I can’t breathe” — had been disregarded in other cases of deaths in police custody.

Officers told Tyson he was fine, to calm down and to stop fighting as he was handcuffed facedown with his legs crossed on the carpeted floor. Police were joking with bystanders and leafing through Tyson’s wallet before realizing he was in a medical crisis.

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Five minutes after the body-camera footage recorded Tyson saying “I can’t breathe,” one officer asked another if Tyson had calmed down. The other replied, “He might be out.”

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 on a kidnapping and theft case and was almost immediately declared a post-release control supervision violator for failing to report to a parole 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 its probe will not determine if force was justified and that the prosecuting attorney or a grand jury will decide if charges related to the use of force are warranted.