18 SHARES Share Tweet

A body-cam video has surfaced of Armando Frank being wrestled off his tractor while being severed an arrest warrant last year. The confrontation that ended with the man’s death. In the body-cam video obtained by The Advocate, shows officers growing frustrated with Frank after he refuses to get off his tractor.

SEE ALSO: Black Woman Arrested For Shooting Her Alleged Abusive Husband

A use-of-force expert who reviewed the video as requested by The Advocate stated the officers escalated the exchange by placing Frank in a choke hold and attempting to yank him off the tractor.

“His level of resistance starts out as passive. It doesn’t go to active and aggressive until he’s physically assaulted by these deputies,” Gregory Gilbertson, director of the criminal justice program at Centralia College in Centralia, Washington, said.

SEE ALSO: Poison in NYC Projects: Public Housing Failures

The incident took place last Oct. 20 when two sheriff’s deputies, Brandon Spillman and Alexander Daniel along with officer Kenneth Parnell attempted to force Frank from his tractor.

Spillman, Daniel, and Parnell are defendants in a civil rights lawsuit. According to the Sheriff’s office, there was other law enforcement personnel on the scene.

A forensic pathologist hired by the parish stated in a report that manual strangulation was the primary cause of Frank’s death. The video shows Spillman mount the tractor behind Frank and apply a choke hold while another officer tries to pull him down. Then Frank is doubled-over while resisting. Officers had to carry Frank to a patrol car after his body went limp.

SEE ALSO: Subway Manager April Epperson Fired After Video Surfaced of Her Using Racial Slurs

A report by Youngsville pathologist Christopher Tape labels the death a homicide for “medicolegal purposes.” Tape notes that officers compromised Frank’s breathing for more than six minutes by putting him in chock holds.

Although cardiovascular disease and obesity contributed to Frank’s death, they “should not be thought of as the primary cause of death as the decedent was alive (and well) prior to the police intervention and dead following, making the police intervention the likely intervening factor that led to his death,” Tape said in his report. Louisiana State Police also investigated the incident, but Police spokesman Scott Moreau referred all questions to the Sheriff’s Office, which he said is the lead agency in the investigation.

Copyright ©2018 The Black Detour All Rights Reserved.