Video of Pennsylvania officer leaning on man’s neck during arrest sparks investigation

Local authorities are investigating and protests have been sparked after a video captured over the weekend showed a Pennsylvania police officer leaning on a Black man’s neck during an arrest.

The viral video was shared Saturday by Black Lives Matter to Lehigh Valley. The video shows three officers restraining a Black man who is held down with his face to the pavement outside of Saint Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart Campus in Allentown, Pa. One officer appears to lean on the man’s neck with his elbow and then his knee.
 

According to ABC News, the Allentown Police Department released a statement that did not name the officers involved but said the man was restrained after he “continued to be non-compliant” with officers and hospital staff and after he started to “yell, scream and spit at the officers and hospital staff.”

Authorities reportedly said the man detained was treated in the hospital and released. 

ABC News reports that the department is conducting an internal investigation over the force seen used in the video, and the Lehigh County District Attorney will review the investigation, which is expected to be completed sometime this week. 

The video has sparked widespread backlash, including protests in the area, as many say the images recall the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd’s death has sparked nationwide calls to address racism and police brutality as well as calls for police reform to end chokeholds.

Ben Crump, the attorney representing Floyd’s family, shared the viral video over the weekend as well, calling it “exactly what led” to Floyd’s death.