Caught On Camera: Teen Says He 'Couldn't Breathe' While Sacramento Police Officer Used Neck-Restraint

A Sacramento, California, police officer, caught on camera using a neck restraint on a teen, is under investigation.

The video shows a police officer holding a teen from behind in a neck restraint as the teen slams his hand against a wall. They later identified the teen as the 18-year-old Tyzhon Johnson.

Police said the incident took place when Johnson was running from police after stealing from a business.

Johnson, however, told KCRA 3 News that he was sitting outside a restaurant early Monday (June 1) when protesters filled the area. Suddenly, a police cruiser stopped, and an officer got out.

“My flight or fight mode instantly activates and I start, like, running. I grab my bags and I start running,” he recalled. As he was running, he tripped and fell to the ground.

“I’m being full-on chased by the police. I’m confused. I don’t know what was going. I was just sitting there,” he said. The teen was then neck restrained by a police officer.

“I can’t breathe. I can only exhale. I’m trying to exhale the words, ‘Just let me out of this chokehold,’” he recalled. The teen was charged later with looting and resisting arrest.

Zakiyah Guillory was driving home with her family when she witnessed the incident and recorded the video.

“When he fell, that’s when I saw the police officer jump on him and that’s when I told my mom to stop the car,” she told KCRA 3 News.

“If I didn’t stop, what would have happened? It makes me think back to George Floyd. What would have happened if someone intervened?” she added.

Guillory said that it was hi-time for policing to change as the black community is in pain.

“We’re crying out and we’re crying out for help. We want to be heard. If there’s any way we can be heard, I think it’s time,” she said.

The Sacramento Police Department says, “A foot pursuit ensued where the suspect then began to resist officers. [Then] a large crowd began to gather and became hostile towards [those] officers.”

Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the incident was under investigation to “determine whether it complies with the police department policy, which does not allow choke holds and allows carotid restraint holds only to prevent serious injury or death to the officer or another person.”