Czech Police statement on their kneeling intervention: Internal Affairs is investigating, autopsy will determine cause of death, the man collapsed in the ambulance

As news server Romea.cz previously reported, a young Romani man died on Saturday, 19 June 2021 in Teplice, Czech Republic after police arrested him. Video footage of their intervention against him was shot from the window of a building near the scene.

The Czech Police are rejecting the idea that the death of the man was caused by their intervention. News server Romea.cz is publishing their statement in full translation here.

Police statement on the intervention in Teplice on 19 June 2021

On Saturday, just before 15:00, police responded to a call about an incident in Dubská Street where two men were said to be assaulting each other, damaging somebody else’s car in the process. After the patrol arrived on the scene, officers found a man lying on the ground shirtless with obvious injuries on U Hřiště Street.
  
When the officers approached the man, he began behaving aggressively, attacking them – he bit one of the colleagues and scratched others. Officers had to use force to restrain him and called an ambulance.  

The man was transferred into the care of emergency medical responders and subsequently collapsed in the ambulance. Attempts to resuscitate him did not succeed.

A doctor recorded the preliminary cause of death as a drug overdose and a court autopsy has been ordered to clarify the exact cause of death. Other circumstances of the case are now being investigated by detectives and staff with the Internal Affairs Department. 

21 June 2021, Lt. Bc. Daniel Vítek