New video shows another suspect crying ‘I can’t breathe’ before dying

In this image made from a May 2019 body-worn camera video of Oklahoma City Police Officer Ashley Copeland, paramedics and police officers carry Derrick Elliot Scott onto a stretcher after he was arrested and went in and out of consciousness during the arrest in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City police released body-camera videos Monday, June 8, 2020, of Scott, an armed black man who died in police custody in 2019 after telling arresting officers "I can't breathe." (AP)

Police in Oklahoma City released new videos this week showing a handcuffed black man repeatedly begging for air before dying at a hospital last year.

“I can’t breathe," 42-year-old Derrick Scott, who was armed, told officers multiple times — using the same final words uttered by George Floyd, Eric Garner and other black men killed in police custody in recent years.

The latest videos, captured by the officers’ body-worn cameras, were made public this week after demands from the Oklahoma City Black Lives Matter group and local news outlets.

The disturbing footage has raised questions about the officers’ response and whether they did enough to try to save the suspect’s life.

“I don’t care,” one of the cops told Scott after he pleaded for air.

“You can breathe just fine,” said another.

Police were responding to a report of a man brandishing a handgun near downtown Oklahoma City on May 20, 2019, when they identified Scott as a possible suspect. But the man took off running and struggled with the cops who were trying to arrest him, the videos show.

The officers eventually tackled the suspect, handcuffed him on the ground and found a loaded firearm in his pocket, according to the videos.

After pleading that he couldn’t breathe, Scott still tried to resist arrest before finally falling unconscious.

The officers called for an ambulance, but the father of two was pronounced dead a short time later, Oklahoma Police Capt. Larry Withrow told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.

An autopsy later determined that the probable cause of death was a collapsed lung, with several contributing factors, including physical restraint, asthma, recent methamphetamine use and heart disease, local news station KFOR reported.

The medical examiner declared the manner of death as “unknown” and said there was “no fatal trauma” to Scott’s body, Withrow told reporters.

The officers were briefly placed on administrative leave at the time, but a district’s attorney review of the case cleared them of any wrongdoing.

“They monitored his health throughout this incident and you can hear them narrate on the video that he continued to have a pulse and he continued to be breathing,” Withrow said.

Scott’s family and local activists are urging authorities to re-open the investigation and fire and charge the officers involved.

“The thing that bothered me in the video was how they treated his life,” the suspect’s uncle, Ronald Scott, told KFOR.

The Oklahoma incident is similar to another 2019 fatal arrest that made headlines this week.

Authorities in Texas also released a video this week showing the final moments before a 40-year-old unarmed black man died in police custody. Javier Ambler, who crashed his car after cops chased him over his alleged failure to dim his vehicle’s bright lights in March 2019, was repeatedly tased by sheriff’s deputies in Austin even after telling them he had a heart disease and was struggling to breathe.

“Sir, I can’t breathe,” he cried. “Please … Save me.”