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2 Ohio police officers involved in Frank Tyson’s in-custody death charged with reckless homicide
Prosecutors in Ohio have announced reckless homicide charges against two police officers in the death of a man who was handcuffed and left face down on the floor of a social club in Canton while telling officers he couldn’t breathe.
Stark County prosecutor Kyle Stone told reporters Saturday that the charges against Canton officers Beau Schoenegge and Camden Burch were brought by a grand jury in the April 18 death of Frank Tyson, a 53-year-old East Canton resident taken into custody shortly after a vehicle crash that had severed a utility pole.
Police body-camera footage showed Tyson, who was Black, resisting and saying repeatedly, “They’re trying to kill me” and “Call the sheriff” as he was taken to the floor, and he told officers he could not breathe.
Officers told Tyson he was fine, to calm down and to stop fighting as he was handcuffed face down, and officers joked with bystanders and leafed through Tyson’s wallet before realizing he was in a medical crisis.
The county coroner’s office ruled Tyson’s death a homicide in August, also listing as contributing factors a heart condition and cocaine and alcohol intoxication.
Stone said the charges were third-degree felonies punishable by a maximum term of 36 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. He said in response to a question Saturday that there was no evidence to support charges against any bystander.
The Stark County sheriff’s office confirmed Saturday that Schoenegge and Burch had been booked into the county jail. An official said there was no information available about who might be representing them. The Canton police department earlier said the two had been placed on paid administrative leave per department policy.
Tyson family attorney Bobby DiCello said in a statement that the arrests came as a relief because the officers involved in what he called Tyson’s “inhumane and brutal death will not escape prosecution.” But he called it “bittersweet because it makes official what they have long known: Frank is a victim of homicide.”
The president of the county’s NAACP chapter, Hector McDaniel, called the charges “consistent with the behavior we saw.”
“We believe that we’re moving in the right direction towards transparency and accountability and truth,” McDaniel said, according to the Canton Repository.
Tyson had been released from state prison on April 6 after serving 24 years on a kidnapping and theft case and was almost immediately declared a post-release control supervision violator for failing to report to a parole officer, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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