Police officer ‘regrets’ telling suspect ‘chill out or I’ll choke you’

PC Graham Kanes made the comments during an arrest last year, a hearing heard

The misconduct hearing is expected to last five days (Getty Images)

A police officer regrets saying “chill out or I’ll choke you” as he restrained a man with a neck hold during an arrest, a misconduct hearing was told on Monday.

PC Graham Kanes made the comments as he arrested Hassan Ahmed, 27, in Spring Hall Gardens in Halifax last August. The incident was captured on video and was widely circulated on social media.

The footage, which was shown to the panel at the misconduct hearing, recorded the police officer saying: “chill out or I’ll choke you out, chill out or you’re going to sleep.”

Mr Ahmed is heard to respond by saying: “I can’t breathe”, and: “I give up, I give up.”

Opening the case against the West Yorkshire Police officer, George Thomas said of PC Kanes: “He accepts the language he used may have been insensitive and he regrets using it. But he understands he can say anything in order to gain control and that is what he did.

“He denies the allegations in their entirety.”

PC Kanes is accused of using unreasonable, unnecessary and disproportionate force in the arrest, something that he denies.

Mr Ahmed told the BBC after his arrest that he thought he was going to die.

“I was afraid for my life,” he said, “I thought: ‘That’s it. He’s going to end up killing me’. I honestly thought it was my final moments.

“I was in shock, I was really scared.”

The hearing was shown footage from the bodyworn camera of another office, PC Andy Bell, who arrived as PC Kanes and Mr Ahmed were on the floor.

The bodyworn camera footage captured a bystander confronting PC Kanes, after Mr Ahmed was put into the police car, saying: “Haven’t you seen what happened in America?”

The arrest happened around three months after the death of George Floyd in the United States.

The footage also showed Mr Ahmed shouting at PC Bell as he was taken to the police station in a van.

Mr Ahmed said: “He had me in a choke.

“You know what happened to that black lad in American who died?”

He added: “He was strangling me and I could not f****** breathe.”

PC Kane’s arrest of Mr Ahmed was lawful, the hearing heard, because the officer had witnessed Mr Ahmed punching another man as he arrived at Spring Hall Gardens on August 16.

The officer had originally been called to the street after reports of girls banging on a door and making threats.

After his arrest, bodyworn footage recorded Mr Ahmed protesting that he had been compliant with his arrest.

He added that he would have had no problems fighting off the officers as he trains regularly “fist-on-fist, gypsy style.”

During the incident, PC Kane had told PC Bell that Mr Ahmed had “lunged at me” and “caught me in the face with his fist.”

But Mr Ahmed denied punching the officer, saying: “I slapped him.”

The misconduct hearing is expected to last five days.