DENVER POLICE SGT. SUSPENDED AFTER CHOKING MAN

A Denver police sergeant will serve a month of suspension for choking an unarmed man for more than a minute until he passed out — ignoring the man’s pleas for help and the gurgling sounds of him choking.

Chokeholds are forbidden in the Denver Police Department’s use-of-force policy.

Sgt. Rudolph Suniga responded Sept. 23 to a report of a man attempting to steal cars in the 2300 block of Curtis Street in Five Points. Within seconds of arriving and contacting the suspect with another officer, the incident escalated from a conversation to a physical struggle. Suniga later told investigators that the man attempted to punch the other officer, Adam Lucero, in the face.

Suniga then put the man in a chokehold and continued the hold for more than a minute even as the man, Jaworski Gauthier, asked for help, according to body camera footage obtained by The Denver Post through an open records request.

“I can’t breathe,” Gauthier said. “Get on the ground and don’t resist,” Suniga replied.

The sergeant continued to tell Gauthier to “stop resisting” as Gauthier asphyxiated, audibly choking and unable to speak.

“You’re not going to win,” Suniga said at one point.

After more than a minute, Gauthier became unconscious. He woke shortly after paramedics and other officers arrived.

“These actions were disproportionate to the aggression level displayed by the suspect and were inappropriate under the circumstances present at the scene,”

Deputy Director of Public Safety Mary Dulacki wrote in the letter outlining his discipline.

The Denver District Attorney’s Office reviewed the incident and declined to file third-degree assault charges because it was not likely Suniga would be convicted, the letter said.

Suniga told internal affairs investigators that he put Gauthier in a headlock to keep him there until other officers arrived. Suniga said he wasn’t aware that his arm was across Gauthier’s neck and didn’t mean to choke the man.

He said he didn’t hear Gauthier choking because Lucero’s radio was loud.

But a headlock is not an approved method to control someone, and officers are warned against placing any pressure on the front of people’s necks, per Denver police policy.

The police department’s policy states that an officer may only use a related technique designed to cut off blood flow — not air — if the suspect’s resistance poses a deadly threat to officers or others.

Cutting off a person’s air can cause them to struggle more because they are being suffocated, Denver police policy states.

“By using an unauthorized control hold in a manner that resulted in applying direct pressure to the front of the throat, back of the head and neck of the suspect, Sergeant Suniga used more force than was necessary or reasonable under the circumstances, in violation of the Denver Police Department Use of Force policy,” Dulacki wrote.

Suniga will serve his 30day suspension starting May 20.

Gauthier was arrested in connection to the incident and later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and attempted motor vehicle theft, said Kelli Christensen, spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Public Safety.

Witnesses at the scene told police that they had seen Gauthier get into an unlocked Greyhound bus and try to start it.

They also said he tried to open the doors to another car, but it was locked.

Their accounts were recorded by the officers’ body cameras.

Gauthier’s last words before becoming unconscious — “I can’t breathe” — echoed the last words of Eric Garner, who was suffocated by New York police officers in 2014.

The phrase became a rallying cry for activists protesting killings by police.