DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News ) – Body camera footage connected to an in-custody death at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas on November 29, 2022 has been released as the legal process continues for the North Texas family’s who is suing the facility.
41-year-old Kenneth Knotts died as officer restrained him after he tried to bring his handcuffs to the front of his body.
Attorney Geoff Henley, represents Knott’s parents and four children, released footage this week that shows officers restraining Knotts while he was faced down on the bed.
Officer: “Let go of her hand.”
Knotts: “I can’t breathe.”
The fatal incident started when Knotts experienced a flat tire in Hutchins while traveling with a woman to Houston and Dallas.
Police received a call about a person experiencing a mental health crises and respondent at 6:35 a.m.
Officers said Knotts was sitting on top of a white SUV at the Love’s Travel Center in the 2500 block of South Interstate 45, holding an infant in his arm.
Police said they tried to talk him off of the SUV. A prosecutors report said Knotts said that Austin Police were trying to kill him. It said officers on the scene were worried because Knotts allegedly seemed to want to throw his son in the air.
Knotts was arrested for apprehension by a police officer without a warrant and he was taken to UT Southwestern Medical Center.
He eventually escaped but officers managed to catch him. The prosecutors report said police took him back to the hospital and that’s where the video released by Henley begins.
The almost eight minute-long video shows Knotts becoming agitated and pleading with police and medical staff for water.
Video shows several officers move to restrain Knotts.
Henley said that officers are trained to use a “five-man takedown,” where each officer takes a limb to hold a person down.
Hospital police told a Dallas Police special investigator that they did perform the move but did not physically hit Knotts during the altercation.
The DPD investigator noted in a report that officer placed a second pair of handcuffs on Knotts and were removing the pair when he started resisting.
Henley said the hands pressing on his client juxtaposed to the way he was positioning on the bed became lethal.
During the incident as police and medial staff discussed getting Knotts back on the bed, he lost consciousness.
Medical staff performed life-saving measures for 43 minutes before he was pronounced dead.
A 2023 Dallas County medical examiner’s report ruled his death a homicide.
A grand jury declined to indict officers involved in his death. Knotts family filed an excessive force lawsuit against the UT Health System last October and is seeking a jury trial.
Here is the body camera footage released by Henley courtesy of our media partner WFAA TV. Viewer discretion is advised.
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