Even as the outrage surrounding the non-indictment of a police officer in the choke-hold death case of Eric Garner continues to grow around the US, another disturbing footage has emerged, which shows a 15-year-old girl being punched and put on hold by a police officer as she cries "I can't breathe."
The cell phone footage, which shows the teen being apparently tortured by the police officer in Arizona, has now gone viral.
Luis Paul Santiago, who recorded the incident from his vehicle as he was travelling that way, posted the footage on Facebook on Friday and it has been shared more than 1.8 million times ever since. Santiago explained in his post, that included the 70-second video, that the girl was an "emotionally unstable" runaway, reports The Daily Mail.
Watch the video below:
According to the Free Thought Project, which first linked the video, the mother of the girl had "attempted to explain to the officers that she had mental problems as well as asthma." The footage shows the girl screaming as the officer hits her twice on the head.
The girl is quickly put on choke-hold and can be heard yelling "I can't breathe", as another cop appears. A woman, who claims to be the teen's mother, is then seen quickly running towards the cop and begging the officer to free her.
In the original Facebook post by Santiago, he said that the police officer had tried to delete his video but had remained unsuccessful.
He added that the second officer said that his partner's actions were in accordance to police procedure.
The United States has seen a series of protests after a grand jury decided that choking a person to death was a non-offence. The fact that a twelve year old child, playing with a BB gun in park was shot down recently by a police officer, also sparked outrage.
The phrase 'I can't breathe' has been an expression to protest over the recent case of Eric Garner, who had reportedly uttered those words before he was killed while being on a police choke-hold.
