Homeless Man Drowns; US Arizona; Homeless Man Drowns In Arizona; US Cops Watch Man Drown; Tempe Arizona; Man Drowns In Lake

The city of Tempme said it intends to make more videos from officers’ cameras public.

Washington:

A homeless man drowned in the US state of Arizona while three police officers watched, according to a video and transcript released Monday.

According to a statement from the city of Tempe.

On May 28, police responded to a “reported disturbance” between the man, Sean Bickings, 34, and his partner, who were near an artificial lake, claimed said.

Video released by the city showed officers talking to his partner, then Bickings, who after a few minutes climbed over the fence and slowly waded into the lake.

The staff said he was not allowed to swim in the lake, but he continued to swim outside and under a pedestrian bridge.

The video then stopped, the city deemed the rest too “sensitive” and provided an audio recording instead.

“So what’s your plan now?” asked one of the officers, according to the transcript.

“I’m drowning. I’m drowning,” Bickings said.

“No, you don’t… go to the pole and hold on tight,” another officer replied.

“I can’t. I can’t,” Bickings said.

“Okay, I won’t dance with you,” said the second officer.

According to the transcript, the officers told the homeless man to go swimming, while trying to control his partner’s increasingly frantic behavior.

“Can you hear me?” are the last words attributed to Sean Bickings on the record.

One of the police officers later noted that the Bicycle “didn’t show up for about 30 seconds.”

His body was later restored.

The city said it intends to make more videos public from employees and cameras in the area in the coming days.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)