Story By: Jonathan Macias, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@elmulah.deelbc
This footage allegedly shows a thief who was caught by shopping centre security guards suffocating to death as he is pinned down after shouting “I can’t breathe”.
The 30-year-old man, who has not been named in reports, reportedly died during the arrest in the Mac Center Shopping shopping centre in the city of Paysandu in the department with the same name in western Uruguay after shouting “I cannot breathe”.
According to local media, the 30-year-old man had gone into the shopping centre that morning trying to escape from a soldier who was chasing him after he allegedly tried to rob a motorbike.
Reports state the alleged thief threatened several members of the shopping centre staff with a broken glass bottle.
Then he tried to escape by running down an escalator moving in the opposite direction and he fell over.
The footage shows the moment the man is pinned down by two security guards and a soldier who had been chasing him in the streets while the alleged thief lies on the floor face-down. The man can be seen banging his foot on the floor as he is pinned down.
According to the local prosecutor one of the men squatted on the buttock area of the deceased man holding his hands while another put his arm on the alleged robber’s upper back and his knee on his neck.
Reports claim the man asked for help when he started suffocating shouting “I cannot breathe!”. Reports state an ambulance was called and paramedics tried to revive the man but could not save him and he died at the scene.
The soldier and one of the guards have been arrested and accused of involuntary homicide.
It is unclear what happened to the second security guard.
A forensic autopsy reportedly determined the 30-year-old man died due to compression on the ribcage, which prevented the entry of air into the lungs.
Criminal lawyer Mario Spangenberg told local newspaper ‘Telemundo’: “This is an arrest made in a situation that is obviously going to be violent, by people who are not prepared to respond and who do not know what the exact limits are.”
The investigation is ongoing.
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