On April 9, shocking bodycam footage was released to the public showing a distressed unarmed man dying in police custody at a Dallas hospital in 2022.
Kenneth Knotts’s hands were cuffed behind his back, with no less than three hospital cops surrounding him while he urgently pleaded for water and struggled to catch his breath.
In the disturbing clip, the dad of four suddenly yells, “I can’t breathe,” — a chilling echo of the words uttered by George Floyd before he died.
Many of the same issues and outrages surrounding George Floyd’s tragic death on May 25, 2020, have flared up again with the death of Kenneth Knotts. A medical examiner had previously deemed Knotts’ death a homicide, yet a grand jury decided not to indict the police involved.
“He had a lot of life to live and loved his children and his family,” his grieving mother, Jocelyn Knotts, told Fox 4 on the heels of an excessive force lawsuit the family filed against UT Southwestern Medical Center. His family is determined not to give up in their fight for justice.
“I’m very angry right now because there is no reason for Kenneth to be gone,” Jocelyn said.
What happened to Kenneth Knotts?
Knotts, 41, was on a road trip from Houston to Dallas with a woman and two of his children when a tire blew out in Hutchins, Texas, around 8 a.m., according to the complaint filed by family’s attorney, Geoff Henley. This prompted what his mom later characterized as a mental breakdown based on a description from his female passenger.
Officers arrived to find Knotts on top of a white SUV at a convenience store on Interstate 45, holding an infant in his arms, according to CBS News. The law allows officers to arrest the mentally disordered without a warrant if they pose a threat to others or themselves — police have significant discretion in these incidences.
Police arrested Knotts on November 29, 2022 and took him to UT Southwestern Medical Center that morning for a psych evaluation.
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