Bodycam shows Arizona officers stand by while man drowns, begs for help – New York Post
Police were responding to a reported disturbance between a couple when one of the people jumped into the lake. The police told the man not to swim in the lake, but the man took a few strokes out from the shore before he drowned.
A 12-minute video shows police talking to Sean Bickings and his wife near the Tempe City of the Arts and the Tempe Town Lake on May 28. Bickings told police he planned to drown in the lake.
Bickings was allegedly trying to escape arrest by swimming. When he was unable to swim to a nearby pylon when he was instructed to do so, an officer told him he wouldn’t be helped and that another officer was getting a boat.
The woman he was with told the officers to save Bickings when she saw that he hadn’t swam to the surface in too long of a time. She tried to jump off the railing to save the man, but was stopped by police.
A police body-cam video shows Sean Bickings talking to officers before he jumped into Tempe Town Lake. The video cuts out before Bickings is heard struggling in the water.
For more information on this story, consider checking out the news outlets listed below to stay in the know.
- Bodycam shows Arizona officers stand by while man drowns, begs for help New York Post
- ‘I’m not jumping in after you.’ Man drowns as police watch at Arizona town lake Sacramento Bee
- ‘I’m not jumping in after you’: Police release details into man’s drowning with officers nearby FOX19
- ‘I’m not jumping in after you:’ Police release transcript of Tempe Town Lake drowning Arizona’s Family
- Footage shows moments leading up to drowning in Tempe Town Lake FOX 10 Phoenix