From what I could see, his head was turned; i.e., his cheek was lying flat against the pavement. Doesn't seem physically possible to only be applying pressure to the back of the neck in this position. More like the side of the neck with easy access to the windpipe. I agree, an autopsy needs to occur before establishing cause of death, but the fact remains that this guy would still be alive had this event not taken place. Not trying to place blame, just trying to look at it reasonably.
See this image:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Gray513.png
This is a depiction of there the arteries are, which you have to close off to choke someone out. What could have happened is, that the neck of the jogger was pressed against the floor, which reduced the bloodflow through one of his subclavian arteries. This could make the jogger somewhat lightheaded, and he may even pass out. But he wouldn't have difficulties breathing.
You can test it for yourself. Try pressing against one of your subclavian arteries and see what happens.
You'd feel some pressure in your head and maybe even pass out, but at no point would you have difficulties in breathing, and everything would normalize within a few seconds after you release the pressure.
Had the cop choked the jogger to death, it would have looked as follows:
- Cop applies pressure to carotids via or something similar
- Jogger passes out within ~15 seconds
- Cop continues to apply chokehold
- Uncontrolled shakes and trembling of jogger sets and first braincells start to die after 2-3 minutes
- Cop continues to apply chokehold
- Jogger stops trembling after about 2 additional minutes. Brain is still functional enough for the breathing reflex and allow the jogger to live the life of a cripple
- Cop continues to apply chokehold
- Lethal braindamage aka. loss of breathing reflex sets in in about 1 additional minute
- Cop continues to apply chokehold
- Cop lets go of the corpse, brushes off the dirt from his uniform, and finally eats some doughnuts. Maybe shoots a few additional joggers which are doing some looting in the meantime. Goes home after a long and productive day, and fucks his wife.
- The heart of a otherwise healthy jogger will beat for about 15 minutes after that, but that's just reflexes, so it doesn't matter
IMHO the cop was afraid that bystanding joggers may try to free his freshly arrested jogger, and, while being distracted, applied a somewhat painful but otherwise harmless restraining technique for slightly longer than he had to. That's what I see. And then the restrained jogger either got a heart attack or an overdose, and died thereafter. Probably the former.
Besides, I hate the fact that I'm defending cops here.
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