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Two months before the death ofGeorge Floydat the hands of police, another man died in police custody after he repeatedly shouted “I can’t breathe” to officers.
Edward Bronstein, 38, was suspected of driving under the influence on March 31, 2020, when California Highway Patrol officers detained him. He died in custody while police were restraining him to draw his blood.
Bronstein’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in December 2020, PEOPLE confirms. They also want Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón to file criminal charges against the officers involved in the incident.
After they filed the lawsuit, Bronstein’s family learned that there was body camera footage of the arrest. A federal judge ordered that the footage should be released this week. It was shown at a news conference on Tuesday.
“The state of California did not want us to release this video,” Luis Carrillo, an attorney for the Bronstein family, tells theLos Angeles Times. “Thank God that the judge agreed with us, and that’s why you can now see this video. It’s horrible, but it is the only way his family can get some justice.”
In the video, which PEOPLE has watched, Bronstein is told that there is a court order for a blood draw.
Bronstein, who is handcuffed in the video, asks the officers why they need to draw blood. An officer tells him that if he doesn’t submit to the blood draw, he will be restrained.
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But Bronstein’s family believes that the police restraint is directly responsible for his death.
Once officers begin to restrain him, Bronstein repeatedly says, “I’ll do it willingly.” Officers tell him to calm down and that it’s “too late” to do the blood draw without restraint. In the video, Bronstein screams, “I can’t breathe,” several times before he falls silent.
“Not one officer took the action to pull the others off of him,” another family attorney, Michael Carrillo, said in the press conference. “Pull him to the side, do something to give him air. When they finally flip him over, he’s lifeless.”
A spokesman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office tells theStar Tribunethat the incident is “under review.” Neither the California Highway Patrol or the District Attorney’s office immediately returned PEOPLE’s calls for comment.
source: people.com
