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Handcuffed man dies in US police custody

Visitors to the Dallas County Jail were told the facility was closed for the day following a scuffle that ended in the death of a man.

A man, seeking police help, has died after losing consciousness when officers put him under their knees in a Dallas County jail.

Joseph Sheldon Hutcheson, 48, ran into the main lobby of the jail on Saturday around 10 and asked for help, saying his wife was trying to kill him outside, police said.

A deputy then handcuffed Hutcheson, “believing that he may be a threat to himself or others until they could calm the man down,” said Raul Reyna, the Dallas County sheriff’s office spokesman.

However, multiple witnesses said that several deputies were on top of Hutcheson, with some seeing one deputy with a knee on his neck while another with a knee on his back.

April Berryhill, who was at the jail to submit a property release form, said Hutcheson was saying he could not breathe.

Officers then uncuffed Hutcheson and laid him down on his back, but it was too late as the color of his face had turned from pale white to pale blue.

Deputies performed CPR at the scene before Dallas Fire Rescue arrived. Hutcheson was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, but was pronounced dead at 11:31 am.

“He came in saying, ‘Don’t be scared of me. I just need some help.’ They just tackled him as if he’d threatened their lives,” Berryhill said. “He didn’t have a weapon. He wasn’t swinging at the officers. He just needed help.”

"When a person is asking for help, someone should reach out and help them...try and see what's going on with the person before you go in and start treating him like a dog," said Tiffany Todd White, a visitor at the jail who also saw the incident.

US police are under harsh criticism over the use of excessive force against Americans especially people of color.

Several black men and women have died either in police custody or in officer-involved shootings in recent months.

In a similar incident, 43-year-old Eric Garner, an unarmed African-American man, died last year after being put in a white police officer's chokehold in New York City.


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