Dallas Police Body Cam Video Shows Tony Timpa's 2016 In-Custody Death

Tony Timpa's Mother Reacts To Police Video Of Son's Death: 'They Laughed At Him, Tortured Him'

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - For the first time, the public is seeing exactly how Tony Timpa, an unarmed man, died in Dallas Police custody in 2016.

Newly released body camera video shows Timpa begging for help as Dallas Police officers restrained him for roughly 14 minutes.

Timpa called 911 from outside a Dallas adult movie store on Mockingbird Lane on August 10, 2016, saying he was afraid and off his medication.

Less than an hour later, he was dead.

"You're going to kill me. You're going to kill me. You're going to kill me," Timpa could be heard saying on the video.

He had already been handcuffed by private security officers when police arrived.

Timpa, 32, had cocaine in his system at the time, according to the autopsy.

Officers pinned the Rockwall man down for 14 minutes and zip-tied his feet.

"You don't need to be squirming, man," officers told Timpa as he screamed and wailed.

On the video, Timpa becomes more incoherent, then loses consciousness.

He never threatened to hurt the officers.

On Wednesday, CBS 11 spoke with an attorney for Timpa's family.

Geoff Henley said officers had no reason to use that kind of restraint for such an extended period of time. 

"No, Tony Timpa shouldn't have died that night. He called 911 and he called 911 hoping to go back into some inpatient facility," said Henley. "Tony Timpa needed help, he didn't need to go to the morgue."

Approximately eleven minutes into the interaction with police, Timpa stopped talking.

That doesn't stop officers from cracking a few jokes.

"Tony, time for school, wake up," an officer said.

Police only question whether Timpa was still alive after they began to move his body toward an ambulance.

"He didn't just die on me, did he? Is he breathing?" an officer said. "Hope I didn't kill him."

Shortly after, a paramedic told police Timpa was dead.

The medical examiner ruled Timpa's death a homicide, listing the cause as sudden cardiac death from cocaine and the "physiological stress associated with physical restraint."

Henley said the Timpa family is moving forward with its civil lawsuit against the officers.

In 2017, three Dallas Police  officers were indicted for deadly conduct related to this incident.

The three Dallas Police officers who were involved were Sgt. Kevin Mansell, Officer Danny Vasquez, and Officer Dustin Dillard.

But in March 2019, Dallas County District Attorney John Cruezot dropped the misdemeanor charges. 

In a previous statement, Cruezot said he interviewed three medical examiners, including one hired by the Timpa family, who said they believed the officers did not act recklessly.

A spokeswoman for Cruzeot's office declined to provide a comment on the body cam footage on Wednesday.

Now, all three officers are back on the job.

A spokesman told CBS 11 the Dallas Police Department would not be issuing a statement due to ongoing litigation.