Bodycam Footage Shows Newburgh Man Saying "I Can't Breathe" Before Death

Marcus Burks was 39 years old, a Newburgh resident, and very much alive when City of Newburgh police pulled him from his overturned car on Broadway in the early hours of January 1. Within a minute of being placed on the ground, he said "I can't breathe" at least three times. He never walked away.

Burks had inexplicably sped away from a routine state police traffic stop and crashed his car into a utility pole, causing the vehicle to overturn. A pursuit lasting approximately two minutes ensued but was terminated by the trooper prior to entering the City of Newburgh. Newburgh police responded, pulled Burks from his upside-down car, and tried to cuff him as he lay face down.

Bodycam video from the responding City of Newburgh police officers shows police focused on restraining Burks with handcuffs. Within the space of a minute, Burks said "I can't breathe" at least three times as police had him on the ground. Officers were putting weight on his back as he repeated that he could not breathe. A radio transmission indicates police also used pepper spray on the injured man.

Burks then went unconscious. The video shows officers standing up and backing away once it was apparent he was not conscious. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Montefiore St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh.

Civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, who is representing the Burks family, said, "I would think that he was probably in a state of shock." Sussman was blunt about what the footage showed and what he believed it demanded. "He's alive, and he's not doing anything that appears, to me, at least, to threaten any of those officers," Sussman said. "So the imperative at that point has to be his well-being. It has to be, and it wasn't."

For Malcolm Burks, watching the footage was its own ordeal. Marcus Burks' father saw some difficult things during his 20 years in the U.S. Army, but watching the bodycam video of the moments before his son died ranks among the hardest. Malcolm Burks, a track coach at Newburgh Free Academy, said he is upset that officers kept pressing on Marcus's back after he said "I can't breathe" at least three times. "I would like to have saw compassion," Malcolm said. "I would have liked to have saw some first aid. I saw no first aid. I saw no chest compressions. I saw no mouth to mouth."

Malcolm Burks said he is also disappointed that police later told the family the department was not deeply involved. "I asked what happened. They said they couldn't tell me because it was under investigation," he said. "I was told City of Newburgh Police was not involved in any way."

His family says Marcus's mother had died 10 days earlier, and Burks was fragile at the time.

Almost three months after the January 1 crash, the family is still waiting for an autopsy report and bodycam video from state police that could shed more light on the immediate moments after the crash. State police said they stopped pursuing Marcus Burks before the crash and have not shared any video of the incident. State police and the City of Newburgh declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation by the attorney general's office. New York State Police referred inquiries to the office of Attorney General Letitia James, who is conducting an investigation.

The Burks family is planning legal action against both Newburgh City police and New York State Police, having already filed notices of claim. Sussman said that before seeking justice in civil court, he wants the public to see the videos and push for changes at the police department, where he has pushed for reform over the last 30 years.

Malcolm Burks has framed what he is after in the simplest possible terms: he says he has not been told the truth about how his son died on a Newburgh street on New Year's night.