Credit: © Nell Redmond-USA TODAY Sports
NBA: New Orleans Pelicans at Charlotte Hornets
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles police officer briefly pressed a knee to the neck of NBA player Jaxson Hayes as the New Orleans Pelicans center gasped “I can’t breathe” seconds before another officer used a Taser on him during a struggle, according to body camera video released Friday.
The officers went to Hayes’ home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood on July 28 around 3 a.m. after his girlfriend’s cousin called 911. The cousin said Hayes’ girlfriend was sending her text messages saying he had become loud and violent and she was scared.
Hayes, who was not armed, became argumentative after officers said he couldn’t go back into his home. He ignored requests from his girlfriend and his cousin to stop talking and struggling with the police as they tried to subdue him. The 21-year-old ultimately was booked into jail on accusations of resisting arrest after he was evaluated at a hospital for minor injuries.
Pelicans center Jaxson Hayes being tased by police for resisting arrest. What was he being arrested for? #nba #NOLA pic.twitter.com/nk1wzxI7bt
— Your NBA Podcast (@YourNBAPodcast) August 4, 2021
“Jaxson Hayes is a nice young man, and he is back home in Ohio working out and getting ready for the upcoming season,” his attorney, Mark Baute, said in a statement Friday.
The LAPD’s Force Investigation Division is looking into the case “due to the possibility of force being applied to Hayes’ neck during the use of force,” police previously said in a statement. Los Angeles police have presented the case to prosecutors, who haven’t decided whether to file charges.
A police officer’s elbow was injured when Hayes shoved him into a wall. Authorities previously said Hayes’ girlfriend has declined to cooperate in the investigation.
—Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
