Nicholas Dyskma’s father says, “A police chase isn't the reason to execute somebody.”
By Abigail Miller
Daily Mail
March 4, 2017
Dashcam footage has been obtained that shows the moment a teen who led deputies on a car chase in 2015 was tased and handcuffed in an altercation that resulted in his death.
Nicholas Dyskma, 18, led police on a 10-mile pursuit that took place on August 31, 2015, at around 2am just south of Atlanta.
He died in the early-morning incident in Harris county.
The dashcam video was originally obtained by the Dyskma family's attorney, and is being released to the media as a 'way to show the public what happened and potentially prevent other police stops from turning so tragic,' reported NBC News.
Dyskma's father, Greg, told NBC: 'A police chase isn't the reason to execute somebody.
'I understand running from the police was wrong, but his crime didn't equal the punishment he got. It's not the police's job to be the judge, jury and executioner on the side of the road'.
The deadly pursuit began when Columbus police were investigating a suspicious vehicle at a convenience store being driven by Dyskma, who was asleep in the front seat.
Police attempted to wake the 18-year-old up, but he sped away toward Harris County.
Chief deputy Neil Adams told the Columbus Ledger- Enquirer that they began to pursue him, driving as fast as 90mph during the chase.
Dyskma's truck hit a patrol vehicle as deputies tried to box the driver in, and used tire deflation devices to stop his truck on the highway, reported NBC.
Investigators then approached the truck and ordered Dyskma to turn the vehicle off. Adams explained that the tires were still spinning as the teen tried to get away.
Deputies said in an incident report that they gave 'loud verbal commands' to the teen, but he failed to comply.
Police reportedly broke the truck's windows after he wouldn't obey orders to turn the car off, and a deputy deployed his taser before taking the man into custody.
However, dashcam video shows deputies dragging Dyksma from the car on and tasering him while he was on the ground, before handcuffing him.
According to the video, and the family's lawsuit filed on February 14, 'Defendants held Nicholas down, pinning him to the ground with their weight of their bodies and continued to do so after he was handcuffed'.
It further described that their weight cut off Dyskma's air supply so he could not breathe, and did not stop doing so until he lost consciousness, reported NBC.
On the video, one of the officers can be heard asking 'is he alive?'
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said his death was primarily caused from a combination of stun gun, 'compression of the neck and torso' and 'acute' methamphetamine intoxication.
Deputies claim that they called an ambulance to the scene when they realized Dyksma's breathing was shallow, Adams told the Ledger-Enquirer.
He was pronounced dead in the hospital about an hour after the incident started.
His father, Greg Dyskma, explained that the family is asking for a jury trial, and that while his son had drugs in his system and fled the police, didn't deserve to die.
'My son was 115 pounds. h wasn't moving, he wasn't fighting, he wasn't doing anything. That's an execution,' the father said to NBC.
He further explained that his son's alopecia, which causes hair loss, led him to get picked on growing up, explaining that his reaction would have been to flee.
Dyskma's mother, Tammy, said her son's death should prompt the Sheriff's office to rethink how they make arrests.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The public is under the mistaken impression that once a person is handcuffed the game is over. In fact, handcuffs do not prevent a person from struggling and as long as he does, police must use the necessary force to subdue him.
While Dyskma may have weighed only 115 pounds, he was under the influence of meth, a strong stimulant which gives a person extra strength and increases his pain threshold. That could explain the measures taken by the officers at the time of his arrest.
1 comment:
One less asshole driving like an asshole while drugged out of his mind. His peeps got nothing coming.
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