Three police officers refused to save a man drowning in a lake in Arizona and just watched him die, according to reports.
According to Fox News, the victim, 34-year-old Sean Bickings, drowned in Tempe town lake while three anonymous Tempe police officers stood by and watched, with one telling Bickings, "I'm not jumping in after you."
The events leading up to Bickings' drowning, as well as the role of cops on the scene, are revealed in the newly released body-cam video and a transcript of the incident released on June 3.
According to the recently released footage, police went to an alleged argument between Bickings and a woman on May 28 around 5 a.m.
In the video, the female identifies herself as Bickings' wife and claims that the two have had disagreements in the past but that Bickings has never been physically aggressive with her.
Two officers then approach Bickings, who was sitting on a bench near the bridge, with a third officer standing nearby. Officers chat with Bickings for a few minutes, asking questions.
Footage Show Police Officers Refuse To Rescue the Victim From Drowning
Bickings went over a short metal fence between the boardwalk and the river around 5.12 a.m. Bickings asked if he was free to go as he approached the water, to which officers replied, "You can't swim in the lake, man."
Bickings jumped into the water and began swimming farther into the lake. "How far do you think he'll be able to swim?" one officer questioned another as Bickings swam away. "
Bickings began to tell officers that he was drowning shortly after, according to a transcript of the body-camera footage that was provided.
"I'm going to drown. I'm going to drown," Bickings told the officers. One of the officers replied: "No, you're not."
For a second time, Bickings told the police officers that he was drowning and could not swim back to the bridge's pylon. But another officer answered him: "OK, I'm not jumping in after you."
Bickings' partner became increasingly distraught as he drowned, pleading with cops to save her husband, per The Guardian. An officer instructs her to get off the bridge and threatens to put her in a police car at one point.
Bickings' partner kept on asking the officers to save him, but the officers said a boat is on its way.
On May 28, Bickings was retrieved from the lake at about 11.30 a.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
It Was a High-Risk Rescue
A police union in Arizona defended its officers' judgment not to rescue the victim while he was drowning in the lake, stating that they lacked the necessary resources, as per a report from The Independent.
Representatives of the Tempe Officers Association said on Monday that attempting such "high-risk rescue" might lead to "the death of the person in the water and the officer, who could be pulled down by a struggling adult."
According to the police union, officers are not trained in water rescue and do not have the necessary equipment to help persons who are drowning.
According to a statement posted to the Tempe government website on Friday, Tempe city manager Andrew Ching and Tempe police chief Jeff Glover called Bickings' drowning a "tragedy."
After conducting an investigation, authorities placed the three police involved in the scene on paid administrative leave.
