'I can't breathe': Video captures moment man pepper sprayed while strapped to restraint chair
WARNING DISTURBING CONTENT: The moment a black man screams that he can't breathe and appears to almost choke after he is sprayed with pepper spray while strapped to a chair in police custody has been captured in a distressing video.
Charles Wade was taken into custody after an alleged drink driving arrest in Dayton, Ohio, the Washington Post reported.
Wade, who has now launched legal action against the Montgomery County Sheriff's department, was taken to the same facility, the Montgomery County Jail, where a woman named Amber Swink had been pepper sprayed inside a seven-point harness in an earlier incident.
Wade said he was immediately fearful of what would happen to him because he had watched a video of the earlier incident online.
In the video, as the white officers search Wade he can be seen slamming his head against a padded portion of the wall, prompting them to lay him on the ground and call for the restraint chair.
“I’m not resisting,” Wade says at this stage.
“I’m not doing anything to fight you guys. If you cause any pain, my lawyer will know about it.”
When he is strapped to the chair Wade complains about pain in his hands, which are handcuffed behind his back.
"It's cruel and unusual punishment for you to strap my hands behind my back in a position where I cannot move," Mr Wade says in the video.
He also accused the officers of mistreating him because he was black.
“Do you white people feel good doing this to us? Yeah you do don't you," he says.
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Once his torso is secured in the chair he is then pushed forward by the officers so that they can undo the handcuffs.
An officer can be hear saying: "be careful with those arms".
At this stage Wade yells: "what are you doing to my hands", as well as profanities and screams out in pain.
"Get the f**k off me!" he then yells before he is sprayed with the pepper spray directly into his face at very close proximity.
"Stop resisting. That's enough. Stay in that position right there," an officer yells out.
Wade can be heard repeated yelling "I can't breathe" and "help me please" as he repeatedly coughs after being sprayed.
The video was captured on a video surveillance system and a handheld video recorder.
Wade's lawsuit submission alleges that he began to struggle because his handcuffs were manipulated, causing "severe pain and injury".
The lawsuit accuses one of the officers, Sergeant John Eversole, of taking "a full can of OC spray places it directly in the face of Plaintiff Wade and hits him directly in the eye and face at a range of approximately one inch".
It also accuses the Sergeant Eversole of spraying Wade a second time "for no reason other than to inflict further pain and injury" and also putting his forearm across Wade's "chest/neck further restricting his ability to breathe" despite his cries that he could not breathe.
"Wade was being forcibly held down, his upper body and head pressed into his lap," a statement on the website of Wade's attorney Douglas Brannon said.
"However, Sergeant Eversole chose to escalate the situation by pepper spraying Wade twice in the face.
"Both times without warning and both times without any instructions to Wade on how to avoid being pepper sprayed."
Mr Brannon Wade never should have been placed in the restraint chair.
He said his client was merely intoxicated and showed no aggression toward officers.
“There’s a culture of brutality within the Montgomery County Jail where sergeants and corrections officers continue to act with impunity,” he said.