I Was On My Last Breath’: Detroit Man Put In Chokehold, Pummeled, Shocked By Cops In Traffic Stop

A Detroit man was pulled from his Cadillac at gun­point, thrown to the pave­ment and put in a choke­hold by police in a shock­ing­ly famil­iar scene caught on dash­board cam­era video. An offi­cer put Floyd Dent, 57, in a choke­hold with one arm and began throw­ing right-hand­ed hay­mak­ers to the man’s head. Video shows the full, vicious assault: 16 blows to the head and a kick to the arm, and anoth­er offi­cer shock­ing Dent with a stun gun three times, Click On Detroit report­ed. “I’m lucky to be liv­ing,” Dent told reporters Wednesday about what was a sim­ple traf­fic stop. “I think they were try­ing to kill me, espe­cial­ly when they choked me. I was on my last breath. I told them, ‘Officer please, I can’t breathe.’”

“I can’t breathe” became a nation­al catch­phrase for police bru­tal­i­ty after Staten Island man Eric Garner died after being placed in a choke­hold dur­ing a July 17 NYPD arrest gone wrong. Police fol­lowed Dent’s car in a sub­ur­ban Detroit area known for drug deal­ing and pulled him over Jan. 28 for not prop­er­ly stop­ping at a stop sign. The police report claims Dent was try­ing to flee in his car, but the video shows oth­er­wise. “Next thing I know, he took out his gun. He’s talk­ing about blow­ing off my head,” Dent said. “Then he grabbed me out the car and start­ed beat­ing on me. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Officers said Dent yelled, “I’ll kill you.” But police micro­phones were off.

Cops arrest­ed Dent on a slew of charges, includ­ing dri­ving with sus­pend­ed license and pos­ses­sion of crack cocaine they allege was found in the car, accord­ing to Click On Detroit. Dent has no crim­i­nal past and a blood test at the hos­pi­tal revealed no drugs or alco­hol in his sys­tem. State police told Dent’s attor­ney this week they were inves­ti­gat­ing the inci­dent. William Melendez, the Inkster, Mich., offi­cer who placed Dent in the choke­hold, was accused of mis­con­duct as a Detroit police offi­cer in 2004 as part of a group of cops acquit­ted in a fed­er­al tri­al for civ­il rights abus­es, the Detroit Free Press report­ed. A judge dis­missed all but the drug charge against Dent, who faces an April 1 court date. He refused a plea deal for pro­ba­tion, his attor­ney said.“I get tears think­ing about it,” Dent told reporters. “I don’t want to watch the tape of them beat­ing me because I get upset.”newyork​dai​lynews​.com