A video from Mexico has surfaced showing a man dying when a cop pressed his foot on his neck for 90 seconds.
The clip from Tijuana shows Oliver López lying face down with the officer standing over him during his arrest on March 27 – two months before George Floyd was killed in a similar hold in Minneapolis.
They swarmed on López after people reported that he was throwing rocks at customers at a gas station.
The video has been shared on social media as outrage and unrest continues to spread across the United States following Floyd’s slaying at the hands of law enforcement.
Another officer is seen lying on López’s legs while adding pressure to his restrained hands.
The cops eventually removed themselves from López when he fell unconscious, but couldn’t revive him.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
A police officer (left) in Tijuana, Mexico, was captured on video March 27 stepping on the neck of Oliver López (pictured lying down) while he was handcuffed for reportedly throwing rocks at gas station customers. He died on the scene despite police efforts to revive him
Tijuana police officers attempt to lift an unconscious Oliver López after one cop kept his foot over López’s neck while another officer kneeled over his legs and presses his handcuffed hands down
A man in a nearby car is heard saying, ‘he is pale, he is dead,’ while a second male interjected, ‘he killed him, he killed him already.’
A couple of minutes would pass before López’s body was turned around as a police officer attempted to revive him by giving him chest compressions. However, he was declared dead on the scene.
The latest police excessive show of force unfurled after López had been apprehended for hurling rocks at gas station customers, according to the Tijuana Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection.
The law enforcement agency said López ‘had seizures at the time of arrest.’
Both police officers were suspended March 31. The Baja California State Attorney General’s office is has taken over the investigation.
A police officer attempts to revive Oliver López by performing chest compressions before he was declared dead. The Baja California
A motorist in Tijuana recorded the moment a cop pressured Oliver López’s neck by placing his foot over it while another police officer pinned the handcuffed man down on the ground
‘It was initially thought that he had precisely died as a result of an overdose. Once the information was obtained, it was established that the cause of death was suffocation,’ said Baja California lead prosecutor, Hiram Sánchez Zamora.
On Tuesday evening, Baja California governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez went on Twitter, calling for a full investigation of the two cops.
‘In Baja California there will be no cases of impunity, before any act that breaks our laws, at any level, ‘ Valdez tweeted. ‘The Baja California State Attorney General will determine the legal situation of the two police officers involved in the act.’
Floyd (pictured), 46, died shortly after Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes
News of López death broke on the eighth day of nationwide protests across the United States after Floyd was killed in Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a police officer, placed his knee over the side of Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and lying face down on May 25.
Video of the incident also showed two other cops kneeling over Floyd’s body as he said ‘I can’t breathe’ and called for his mother after the police had arrested him for allegedly using a fake $20 bill at a deli.
Chauvin and the three other officers – Tou Thao, Thomas K. Lane and J. Alexander Kueng – who were at the scene were fired. Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Multiple footage of the incident has motivated peaceful demonstrations across the world. However, some of the protests have been marred by acts of looting caused by groups that have infiltrated the mass gatherings.
Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white cop who has since been arrested, was seen in footage kneeling on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe (incident pictured)
A family attorney has blasted a medical examiner’s findings that Floyd had fentanyl in his system as a ‘red herring’ meant to distract attention away from a Minneapolis police officer’s responsibility for his death.
During a news conference Tuesday, attorney Ben Crump also disputed the findings released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner that the cause of death was cardiac arrest, which happened as police restrained Floyd and compressed his neck in a widely seen video that has sparked worldwide protests.
The medical examiner also listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use, but not as the cause of death.
An autopsy commissioned by the family, which Crump released Monday, concluded that Floyd died of a lack of oxygen caused by the officers’ knees on his neck and back.