Derek Chauvin Murder Conviction Could Affect Similar Dallas Death

The case of Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old man who died after a Dallas police officer knelt on his back and shoulders for more than 14 minutes in an encounter captured on body-camera footage, is likely to be the first major test of the lawfulness of “prone restraints” since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd with a similar maneuver, reports the Wall Street Journal. In November 2016, Timpa’s family sued the Dallas officers involved in the encounter, claiming they asphyxiated Timpa, who had a history of mental troubles and was unarmed, handcuffed and barefoot during a struggle with police. He stopped moving minutes before the officer got off him, the footage shows. And while a federal judge in Texas ruled last summer that the force used against Timpa wasn’t deadly or clearly excessive, dismissing the suit, Timpa’s family appealed to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has yet to rule.