© Via Facebook
Michael Sabbie being carried away by guards in the Bi State jail in Texarkana, Texas.
Only 48 hours after he made a Facebook post thanking God for his kids, a 35-year-old father of four, Michael Sabbie, would die in a concrete cage. His last moments alive were caught on a jail's surveillance cameras as he uttered the all-too-familiar phrase 'I can't breathe' — 19 times.
Sabbie was
violently subdued and repeatedly pepper sprayed by guards at the Bi State Prison on the borders of Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana.
As the assault on this father began, five officers swarmed Sabbie and piled on top of him as he shouted, "I can't breathe." Then, a sixth guard, equipped with a body camera, joined the group and began spraying Sabbie in the face while accusing him of resisting.
"Get your hands behind your back or you'll get it again!" the guard yelled.
"I can't breathe, sir," Sabbie said, as officers propped him up against the wall outside of the nurse's office. "Please, please. I got pneumonia."
The nurse examined him and then released him, noting that his symptoms were normal for someone who'd just been pepper sprayed. However, Sabbie had those symptoms
before he was sprayed. "Please, please," Sabbie begged for water, but was denied. He was then brought to the shower to wash off the spray and thrown in his cell.
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