A man being arrested while a Denver police body camera recorded the use of excessive force said he thought he was being choked out.
Jimmy Brown is back in jail, accused in a stabbing unrelated to the August arrest, which was captured on a Denver police officer’s body camera.
The According to the incident report, police stopped Brown and another man from fighting. Witnesses then told police that Brown had just fought with a woman, choking her against a fence. That woman was his girlfriend. The camera video shows Brown handcuffed and facedown in a planter, with Officer Chad Sinnema pressing his knee into Brown’s neck.
“It felt like he was about to choke me all the way out, like just a little bit more and he would have just broke my neck,” Brown told 7News. “I just couldn’t breathe. I was trying to tell them that I was not resisting and I couldn’t even talk.”
In the report, Brown is accused of kicking at officers before he ends up facedown in the planter, although none of the body cameras was recording at that time.
“The officer made some kind of statement, I forget exactly what it was, but I feel like it was kind of insulting. Not black or anything, like, ‘less than a man,’ ” Brown said. “When he made that statement, he stood up and that’s when he said, ‘You just caught you a felony.’ He looked at the other officers and then they jumped on me.”
In the body camera video, Sinnema is heard yelling, “Start acting like a man,” as officers prepare to let Brown back up.
The Denver Post reported Thursday that Sinnema served a four-day suspension last week after an internal affairs investigation determined he used inappropriate force against the suspect. The body cam video shows Sinnema kneeling for about 2½ minutes with his knee on Brown’s neck.
While video footage shows Sinnema’s knee on the man’s neck, the officer originally told investigators that he had his knee on the suspect’s upper shoulders and had held the suspect’s head with his hand.
Sinnema was suspended for four days for the use of force, though the independent monitor disagreed with the punishment and recommended 10 days.
“I didn’t know that the body camera was used that day, but I’m glad that it was,” Brown said. “Whoever that officer is, I’m just glad that he didn’t try to cover up that body camera.”
