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Police ‘choke’ Ex-NFL player Desmond Marrow during arrest caught on video: ‘I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!’

Mr Marrow appears to pass out after the officer removes his hand from his neck

Clark Mindock
New York
Friday 27 April 2018 22:00 BST
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Ex-NFL player Desmond Marrow appears to lose consciousness following being choked by police upon arrest

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The video shows Henry County, Georgia police pushing Desmond Marrow — a former NFL player — into the back of a car before pulling his legs up and slamming him to the ground. During the altercation, Mr Marrow can be heard telling the police he is complying with them, and later telling them he couldn’t breath when an officer puts his hand on his throat.

“I’m not even fighting back. I’m not even doing nothing man!” Mr Marrow says in the video.

When an officer puts his hand on Mr Marrow’s neck, he can be heard saying “I can’t breath.”

Shortly after the officer removes his hand, Mr Green appears to lose consciousness. For several moments the officers appear not to notice before one nudges his shoulder to see if he is alright, and then officers lift the man to a sitting position.

In a Facebook post, Mr Marrow claims that he was falsely arrested in the incident, which appears to have taken place in a parking lot. While the post does not note when the incident occurred, a police report obtained by 11 Alive indicates that it happened in December following an alleged road rage incident — and that Mr Marrow allegedly threatened to shoot the police. The report further indicates that Mr Marrow had allegedly followed a car into a parking lot after his car was hit with a cup of coffee.

Mr Marrow wrote that police accused him of having a gun but that all he had on him was a cell phone.

“I was arrested for having a Gun that turned out to be my Cell Phone. During the arrest the police knocked my teeth out, slammed me on my head, and choked me until I was unconscious,” the post reads.

“I thought I was going to die. I was sure I was passing out or dying when [the officer] was choking me as my breath was slipping away,” it says. He then says that the police department offered to drop the charges in exchange for him deleting the video.

The Henry County Police Department did not respond to a phone call or emails from The Independent seeking comment, clarification, and the police report related to the arrest. An email to the firm representing Mr Marrow was likewise not returned.

Mr Marrow, in the Facebook post, continues to claim that he was thrown “into isolation” and labeled as “a gang member because of my tattoos.”

The post ends with a call for help, saying that he has been sleeping on a floor, and that he has lost all of his clients at his job, and that he can’t pay child support because of his legal hardships.

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