In Tempe, Arizona, three police officers have been placed on leave after they ignored an unhoused man’s pleas to help him from drowning in a lake.  

Phoenix, June 9 (RHC)-- In Tempe, Arizona, three police officers have been placed on leave after they ignored an unhoused man’s pleas to help him from drowning in a lake.  The incident began when police responded to a reported disturbance involving 34-year-old Sean Bickings and a companion near Tempe Town Lake last month. 

After the police arrived, Bickings climbed a metal fence to reach the water.  He soon began struggling in the water. According to a police transcript, Bickings said: “I’m drowning.”  An officer responded saying: “I’m not jumping in after you.”

Bickings responded by saying: “Oh God.  Please help me. Help me.”  Tempe’s city manager and police chief have called his drowning a “tragedy.”

In other police abuse news, in the U.S. state of North Carolina, a county has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement to the family of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black father who was fatally shot by officers last year. 

Three sheriff’s deputies opened fire on him in his driveway while serving an arrest warrant.  An autopsy confirmed Brown died of a gunshot wound to the back of his head.   Andrew Brown Jr. was the father of seven children.