By Lou Michel
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A video posted on social media shows a Buffalo police officer on top of a suspect and placing his hands by the man’s face and neck during a struggle.
What is not clear in the video, Buffalo police sources say, is that the officer was attempting to prevent the man from choking on drugs he had swallowed.
The video also includes a woman, not seen on camera, repeatedly screaming and cursing at the officer, demanding that he stop choking the man.
“He swallowed 39 bags of crack cocaine and the officer is trying to keep him from choking on them,” an officer familiar with the arrest said Thursday. “The suspect was taken to the hospital and voluntarily threw up the drugs.”
The video shows the officer struggling with the man lying on the sidewalk, who is refusing to be handcuffed.
The suspect eventually gets up and, with assistance from other officers, makes his way to a police vehicle.
No punches are thrown and pepper spray or a billy club are not used in the video.
The incident happened Wednesday evening at Hudson Street and Busti Avenue on the West Side.
The video, which was posted on Facebook, includes the woman, standing nearby, repeatedly screaming that the man is being choked “for no reason” by the officer who is on top of him.
“Get ... off of him. Look at his face,” she can be heard hollering throughout the struggle.
The location and when the arrest occurred are not established in the video, but it concludes with the man being handcuffed and assisted to a police car.
A copy of the video was given to officials at the Buffalo Police Department Thursday afternoon, and an investigation into the arrest has started, according to Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda.
“We received a copy of the video and a complaint and we have opened up an investigation,” Derenda said, declining to comment further.
About eight other people are seen watching the arrest, but they do not interfere, though one apparently yells that the officer should get off of the man.
As the video progresses, three other officers arrive and one assists in placing handcuffs on the man, who can be heard saying “get off me.”
He is then taken to a police vehicle. At that point, the video ends.
A third police source, familiar with procedures at arrest scenes, said that it did not appear that the officer used excessive force, adding that when defendants resist arrest, inherently “there is a struggle.”
Copyright 2015 The Buffalo News