DETROIT (WXYZ) — In March of 2015, 24-year-old Anthony Clark Reed was stopped by Detroit police for having tinted windows.
According to the family attorney Herbert Sanders, when Anthony reached over to the glove box he was ordered out of the car, put in handcuffs, and laid down on his stomach while putting on handcuffs and said, “I can’t breathe.”
This is the phrase now used to describe some police brutality cases after video shows George Floyd was held to the ground with a knee on his neck by Minneapolis Police and died this week. Four police officers there have been fired and could be criminally charged.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday the Medical Examiner in the 2015 Anthony Clark Reed case ruled the cause of death was asthma and morbid obesity.
Chief Craig also said the case was fully reviewed by internal affairs and the prosecutor and no wrongdoing was found.
Pastor Kevin Clark, who is the father of Anthony Clark Reed, told supporters in his southwest Detroit church police did not have to arrest his son, but could have given him a ticket and he would still be alive. He was reaching into the glove box for his asthma inhaler.
At the same event, Leda Reed, Anthony’s mother asked if black people, “are supposed to be scared every time they see a cop. They are supposed to protect us.”
The family of Anthony Clark Reed is suing the city of Detroit and the case is pending in the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
