Body cameras capture a Denver Police sergeant using a choke-hold on a man suspected of attempting to break into vehicles.

DENVER, Colorado — A Denver Police Department Sergeant is facing a thirty-day suspension without pay for violating the "Inappropriate Force" provision of the Denver Police Department Discipline Handbook.

The suspension stems from an incident on September 23, 2018. The Probable Cause Statement from that day says officers responded to Curtis Street near Park Avenue after reports of a man "trying door handles in order to enter and steal motor vehicles."

The Probable Cause Statement says officers later learned the man, Jaworski Gauthier, tried to steal a blue Ford from inside the Greyhound Lines Bus Building at 2450 Curtis St. before walking across the street to a private parking lot for Greyhound Buses. According to the statement, Gauthier went into an empty bus and tried to start it but failed "due to an improper starting sequence."

Officers made contact with Gauthier after he walked off the lot. Body cameras from Officer Adam Lucero and Sergeant Rudolph Suniga captured what happened next.

Here is how one of those officers described the ensuing events in the Probable Cause Statement:

"The defendant immediately became aggressive upon police contact. The defendant physically resisted officers' efforts to detain him by vigorously attempting to pull away in order to gain space/freedom to possibly assault the officers. After a short struggle, the defendant was finally placed into custody with the assistance of two more officers."

In the body-worn camera footage, Sergeant Suniga walks up to Officer Lucero as he is having a conversation with Gauthier. In the audio from Officer Lucero's camera, Gauthier can be heard saying, "let me go one more time and get my ID." At that moment, Officer Lucero can be seen grabbing Gauthier's arm while Sergeant Suniga walks up behind the man.

In a Departmental Order of Disciplinary Action issued on April 17, 2019, the Department of Public Safety says "the suspect attempted to strike [Officer Lucero], knocking his body-worn camera off his uniform." The order then says Sergeant Suniga saw this, "immediately grabbed the suspect by his right arm while the suspect continued to resist."

In the order, Sergeant Suniga is quoted as having said, "he placed the suspect 'in a front headlock in order to take him to the ground' and 'then put my body weight across the suspect's head and shoulders areas as he was taken to the ground.'"

Sergeant Suniga's body-worn cam was also knocked to the ground. In the recording, Gauthier can be heard saying "I can't breathe," "help," and making choking noises. The Order of Disciplinary Action says officers rolled the suspect over after he was handcuffed and he "appeared to remain unconscious for a few seconds until he came to." In the audio of Sergeant Suniga's body-worn camera, another officer can be heard asking "is he snoring?"

The order of Disciplinary Action identifies two types of resistance applicable to this incident: Active aggression and aggravated active aggression.

The order says "the suspect was resisting in a manner that amounted to active aggression."

Had Gauthier's resistance fallen under the category of aggravated active aggression, the Use of Force Policy stipulates Sergeant Suniga would have had a variety of approved "force/control options."

One option listed is a Carotid compression technique.

The order says "the technique applies pressure to the carotid arteries that are on both sides of the neck."

While the order says the hold used by "Sergeant Suniga was similar," it "would have only been permissible in response to aggravated active aggression." The Carotid technique applies pressure to the sides of the neck but the "unauthorized control hold" used by Sergeant Suniga applied "direct pressure to the front of the throat, back of the head and neck of the suspect."

The order determined Sergeant Suniga's actions "were disproportionate to the aggression level displayed by the suspect and were inappropriate under the circumstances present at the scene. The misconduct "involve[d] the serious abuse or misuse of authority."

Sergeant Suniga's thirty-day suspension without pay begins Monday, May 20, 2019.

The Department of Public Safety says Suniga has appealed the decision.

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety said:

"The Denver Police Department’s use of force policy emphasizes that officers should only use the level of force necessary and reasonable under the circumstances. This is an unfortunate incident that is not reflective of DPD officer standards. Overall, use of force incidents are down 22.7 percent when compared to this time last year.

We understand Sergeant Suniga has appealed this decision."