“All I could think of was, ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat.’”
Michael Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks said in a statement issued Wednesday that police officers pointed their guns at him last month following a Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Police Department did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
Stacy Revere / Getty Images
On Saturday, August 26, 2017 I was in Las Vegas to attend the Mayweather-McGregor fight on my day off. After the fight while heading back to my hotel several hundred people heard what sounded like gun shots. Like many of the people in the area I ran away from the sound, looking for safety. Las Vegas police officers singled me out and pointed their guns at me for doing nothing more than simply being a black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A police officer ordered me to get on the ground. As I laid on the ground, complying with his commands to not move, he placed his gun near my head and warned me that if I moved he would "blow my fucking head off." Terrified and confused by what was taking place, a second officer came over and forcefully jammed his knee into my back making it difficult for me to breathe. They then cinched the handcuffs on my wrists so tight that my fingers went numb.
The officers' excessive use of force was unbearable. I felt helpless as I lay there on the ground handcuffed facing the real-life threat of being killed. All I could think of was "I'm going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat." My life flashed before my eyes as I thought of my girls. Would I ever play with them again? Or watch them have kids? Or be able to kiss my wife again and tell her I love her?
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2wIE3LO
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