An Arizona man says police pinned him on hot asphalt and suffered third-degree burns to his body while arresting him at the height of Phoenix’s summer heat.
Video obtained by CBS News from the man’s attorney shows Michael Kenyon talking on his cell phone as he walked in the parking lot on July 6 when police stopped a Phoenix police truck. The two police officers leave and Kenyon puts his phone in. Within minutes, they attempt to handcuff him and a struggle ensues. Two backup agents arrive on scene.
The video shows four police officers pushing Kenyon to the ground and holding him down. The police scuffle with Kenyon before he is finally handcuffed, and officers lift him off the asphalt and guide him into a police vehicle.
Kenyon’s attorney, Bobby DiCello, said he spent more than a month in the hospital after the accident with burns on asphalt.
When police lifted Kenyon off the asphalt, his melted skin peeled off and fell to the ground, his attorney said. Police said officers called an ambulance after discovering his burns.
Bobby DiCello
“They killed a man, another human being, with a surface so hot that his skin was bubbling and boiling,” DiCello said in a statement, adding, “His client is now scarred for life.”
DiCello said the temperature that day was 114 degrees and the asphalt temperature was estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees. phoenix heat 100 consecutive days at a temperature of at least 100 degrees During the summer. Arizona has the nation’s only chief heat officer, and Maricopa County has Phoenix is located in one of the most popular metro areas. In America.
Phoenix police said officers responded to a report of a theft in progress. “Officers contacted Kenyon and told him he was in custody so they could understand what had happened. The man struggled with officers, which resulted in him falling onto the hot asphalt. The man suffered burns to multiple parts of his body. “It was his body from the moment he was on the ground,” police said in a statement to CBS News.
Police said they determined Kenyon was not the robbery suspect they were searching for that day. When he was later taken to the hospital, police learned he had a felony warrant out for his arrest.
Phoenix police said the Office of Professional Standards is investigating the incident.
Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.
