N.Y. attorney general investigating death of man handcuffed after car crash

The New York attorney general has opened a preliminary assessment into the death of an Orange County man.

The family of Marcus Burks believes he did not receive the assistance he needed after a car crash.

Man fled traffic stop, crashed into pole

On Jan. 1, Burks inexplicably sped away from a routine state police traffic stop and crashed his car into a utility pole, causing the vehicle to overturn.

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

Bodycam video from responding City of Newburgh police officers shows police focused on restraining Burks with handcuffs. Within the space of a minute, Burks says "I can't breathe" at least three times as police have him on the ground.

A radio transmission indicates police used pepper spray on the injured man.

"I would think that he was probably in a state of shock," said civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, who is representing Burks' family.

First responders loaded Burks onto a stretcher and took him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

Almost three months later, 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 Burks crashed.

State police and the City of Newburgh declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation by the attorney general's office.  

"I haven't been told the truth"

Marcus Burks' father, Malcolm Burks, 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 is about as difficult as it gets.

"I would like to have saw compassion," he said. "I would have liked to have saw some first aid."

"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."

"I saw no first aid. I saw no chest compressions. I saw no mouth to mouth," Burks said.

Burks said he needs some type of closure about his son's death.

"We're talking two months and 24 days now," he said.

He added, "It's tough. It's tough. Not knowing, it's tough."

The family has filed a notice of claim and may file a lawsuit after receiving the autopsy report and other material.