CLEVELAND — During a video conference with city council on Monday night, Akron Police Chief Ken Ball took a moment to share how his men and women in blue really felt about the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man who died in police custody, reports News 5 media partner Ohio.com.
He made clear to council and everyone else watching the public meeting that the action of the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was “disgusting and unimaginable to watch.”
“There’s not a member in law enforcement in the city of Akron that believes that what happened was right or just or close to it on any level. The murder charge was appropriate,” said Ball, who video-conference from his phone to speak with council members mostly attending online from their homes.
Ball said it was a heartbreaking thing to watch, as none of the officers are trained that way, Ohio.com reported.
“And the fact that there were other police officers present that didn’t intervene — it just doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to imagine. And I promise that that would never happen in the city of Akron. Our men aren’t trained that way. They’re not led that way. And it was heartbreaking for members of the Akron Police Department to have had to have seen that, too.”
On Monday, an independent autopsy found that Floyd died of asphyxiation from sustained pressure on his back and neck.
That's different than the original government autopsy, which included the effects of being restrained, along with underlying health issues and possible intoxicants in Floyd’s system, but said it found nothing “to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.”
Read more of this article from Ohio.com here.
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