Another death after Czech Police intervene as they did against Stanislav Tomáš - but this time an officer has been charged with manslaughter
The General Inspectorate of Security Forces (GIBS) has filed charges against a police officer who, during an intervention last May in Uherský Brod, Czech Republic, put his full weight on top of a 17-year-old boy who was under the influence of drugs and prone on the ground; the case, which is similar to that of the death of Stanislav Tomáš in police custody in 2021, has only now been brought to public attention by the Czech daily Právo. The boy, who was on drugs, had jumped off a bridge into a river twice, damaged a car, and ultimately got into a conflict with the police officers called to the scene; after they intervened against him, the youth remained in handcuffs, but his state of health suddenly worsened and he died despite emergency medical technicians attempting to save his life.
Unlike the case of Stanislav Tomáš, which remains unresolved, as it is currently before the Czech Constitutional Court and apparently will end up before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, in this case GIBS has charged the intervening officer with manslaughter by negligence. Reporting on the case has been done by Právo and its online news server Novinky.cz.
Police intervened after the adolescent jumped twice from a seven-meter-high bridge into the Olšava River, where there was about 27 centimeters of water at that time. The drugged teenager then assaulted one of the police officers.
“He opened his arms, caught hold of me by the knees from a half-seated position, and I lost my balance,” the now ex-officer described the chain of events to Novinky.cz. “We ended up with him lying on his belly and me on his back.”
Other officers subsequently rushed to his aid and rendered the youth motionless. The boy did not survive the intervention.
“It happened in the blink of an eye,” the ex-officer said. “He went absolutely still.”
“The emergency medical technicians began to revive him, we aided them with carrying him into the ambulance, and after a moment the doctor pronounced him dead,” the ex-officer told Novinky.cz. The cause of death was brain swelling; according to the medical examiner, the youth was suffocated during the intervention when the officer’s body weight pressed into his thorax and made breathing impossible for him.
Experts also said a role was played by the fact that the youth was under the influence of LSD and had been exhausted by his preceding activity. “The situation at the scene was calm, the injured party had not committed any illegal behavior,” Novinky.cz quoted GIBS as saying.
“Despite that, the accused lay on top of him with his full body weight while coercive measures were used against him on the ground. The accused lay on top of the injured party for at least three minutes in an attempt to get him to stop resisting,” GIBS told the news server.
“This was after the injured party had been handcuffed,” GIBS said. The officer involved resigned shortly after the incident.
