This is the moment a tourist died in the street after being restrained by police.
Frank Ogboru, 43, was sprayed with CS gas and pinned down after a minor row. CCTV footage captured him losing consciousness after screaming: “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
The Nigerian businessman, who was in London on holiday, stopped breathing and was declared dead in hospital.
Witnesses said officers had their “knees and feet” on him as he “wailed like a dog”. But the CPS decided there was ” insufficient evidence” for any of the officers to be charged in connection with Mr Ogboru’s death in Woolwich in September 2006.
Speaking from her home in Lagos, Mr Ogboru’s widow, Christy, said: “I am crushed. I put my faith in the British system to give me justice but it has failed me. Frank was not a criminal. He did not deserve to die in the street like an animal.”
Officers were called to Calderwood Street where Mr Ogboru had rowed with the girlfriend of the man he was staying with. CCTV footage shows him calmly talking to two officers but when they order him not to return to the flat a struggle ensues.
Two more officers arrive to help restrain him. Footage appears to show one officer’s knee over his neck as his head dangles over the kerb. When the police saw Mr Ogboru had stopped breathing they tried to revive him but it was too late.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated and the four officers were questioned under caution. A pathologist gave “asphyxia during restraint” as the cause of death but the CPS decided “a jury would find that the restraint was not unlawful” as there was not sufficient evidence that the officers had breached their duty of care. Continue Reading…
“Speaking from her home in Lagos, Mr Ogboru’s widow, Christy, said: “I am crushed. I put my faith in the British system to give me justice but it has failed me. “
Sadly when a black man dies at the hands of the police, the word ‘justice’ doesn’t mean a damn thing!
The only time I remember a victim (who died at the hands of the police) receiving some form of justice was 10 years ago…
The victim was a police DOG!
Sergeant Andrew White and Constables Kenneth Boorman and Stephen Hopkins were convicted of cruelty after Acer’s (the dog) death in 1997.
Boorman, 45, was jailed for three months, White, 37, was given a one-month suspended sentence and Hopkins, 42, was ordered to carry out community service.
Boorman and White were also dismissed from Essex Police. (Source)
Even to this day I cannot believe that a dead dog received some form of justice while the thousands of black men who have died in police custody in this country over the past forty years and those who have experienced extreme police brutality, receive nothing!
What’s a black man’s life really worth? I’ll leave you all to answer that question.
Rest In Peace Frank Ogboru
