He was handcuffed and pleading for his life, begging police to not kill him. Police told him to remain on the ground where he was handcuffed and writhing in pain. Police told him to relax and he asked for help again. The officers then pinned him to the ground, forcing his face into the grass, with a knee on his back. Eventually, the man identified as 32-year-old Tony Timpa went unconscious and died less than 20 minutes later.
Timpa could be heard begging for his life more than two dozen times even as several officers with the Dallas Police Department mocked him as he rolled around, clearly in pain, "like a roly poly." one officer can be heard saying in the video.
The footage obtained by the Dallas Morning News shows the moments during and after the August 2016 arrest of Tony Timpa, a man who'd called 911 for help from the parking lot of an adult video store, telling dispatchers he suffered from depression and schizophrenia and had stopped taking his prescription medication.
Before officers arrived, a security guard at the store handcuffed Timpa after he attempted to run into traffic.
According to a police report about the incident, Timpa was acting "aggressive and combative," adding that his behavior forced officers to keep him restrained. The body-cam footage released by the Dallas Police Department shows Timpa begging for help and clearly struggling as he's being held down by the responding officers.
In the footage, Timpa can be heard begging for his life more than two dozen times, even as the officers with the Dallas Police Department pinned him to the ground. As he screamed and begged for help they traded jokes.
"You’re gonna kill me! You’re gonna kill me! You’re gonna kill me!" Timpa repeats to officers as they continue restraining him.
In the video, one officer is seen pinning Tampa face-down with his knee on his back in what's known as the "prone position." After several minutes in this position, Timpa falls still and officers can be heard mocking him, with one saying he was "out cold."
The restraining technique is considered controversial and its use is prohibited in many departments. Use of the prone restraint position can result in what's known as "positional asphyxiation" for the subject.
After Timpa fell unconscious, the officers assumed he had passed out and was asleep, failing to check his pulse. One officer questions if Timpa is still breathing, until he snorts, prompting one first responder to joke that he'd fallen asleep.
"It's time for school. Wake up!" One cop says to laughs.
You can watch the video below. Warning graphic language and situations throughout.
Another officer is heard mocking Timpa using a high-pitch voice saying "I don't want to go to school! Five more minutes, Mom!"
Around four minutes pass before one of the first responders begins CPR on Timpa's unconscious body. One officer can be heard worrying about Timpa's condition as he's being loaded into an ambulance.
"He didn't just die down there, did he?" the officer asks another. "I hope I didn't kill him."
An autopsy would later reveal Timpa's death was a homicide caused by cardiac arrest brought on by cocaine and the stress his body was under while he was being restrained.
The three police officers seen in the video, Sgt. Kevin Mansell and Officers Danny Vasquez and Dustin Dillard, were taken off duty and indicted by a Grand Jury in 2017 on misdemeanor deadly conduct charges. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office John Creuzot dismissed the charges in March, saying the medical examiner indicated in his testimony to the Grand Jury that he officers did not act recklessly. The officers returned to active duty the next month.
The body-cam footage of the incident was released by the Dallas Police Department after a federal judge ruled in favor of the Dallas Morning News' request for the footage, writing in his ruling that "the public has a compelling interest in understanding what truly took place during a fatal exchange between a citizen and law enforcement."
Timpa's family has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Dallas claiming the officers used excessive force.