‘A video of a police encounter showing Asheville, Nc. officers violently detaining a Black man has sparked outrage in the community. According to ABC 13 News, the officers claim he assaulted them while resisting arrest but bystanders believe they were the ones who assaulted the man.

Devon Lewis Rayshawn Whitmire, 27, was arrested Saturday for an open warrant for communicating threats. The police department said when the officers approached Whitmire he initially gave them a false name. After confirming his identity, the officers attempted to arrest him. Despite him wearing a sling for a broken arm, they tried to force his arms behind his back and threw him onto the ground.

“Can’t y’all just back up so I can get my gun off me?” Whitmire said, per the authorities. However, Whitmire’s fiancé, Carrie Speigle, told the Citizen Times, “I thought I heard him say, ‘I don’t have it on me.’”

As the officers struggled with him on the ground, a crowd gathered and began to yell at the officers to get off of him. “He can’t breathe,” a bystander is heard saying as they pressed him into the ground by his neck.

Source: Asheville Man Pinned Down by Officers for Gun He Did Not Have