The Maryland Office of the Attorney General released several body camera videos on Tuesday that show Montgomery County police officers struggling to restrain a Silver Spring man who died a week later in a hospital.

The attorney general’s office’s Independent Investigations Division is investigating 31-year-old Jamal Thompson’s Dec. 15 encounter with the officers.

That night, police responded to a 911 call about a man having a mental health episode. They spent almost half an hour trying to get Thompson in custody before he was sent to a hospital for an evaluation.

In the videos, Thompson is recorded saying that he is struggling to breathe. He told officers repeatedly, “I can’t breathe.”

The struggle

The body camera videos show the same Dec. 15 interaction between officers and Thompson from different vantage points. In one video, the camera falls to the ground during the struggle.

The scuffle between the police and Thompson happened just after 8:30 p.m. at an apartment building in the 9700 block of Mt. Pisgah Road in Silver Spring.

At first, an officer encountered a man who said Thompson was visiting and appeared not to have taken his medication. The officer then approached Thompson and asked, “What’s going on?” and asked him to sit.

Thompson responded that he’s “OK.”

The officer then told Thompson that the police were trying to make sure that he was “good.”

“I’m good,” Thompson said.

The officer remarked that Thompson’s pacing was “unusual behavior” and told Thompson, “We’re worried about you.”

Multiple officers then surrounded Thompson and tried to restrain him as he repeatedly yelled, “Please!” and “Why would you do that?”

As the situation escalated, an officer can be heard asking Thompson to “stop.”

“Stop resisting, Jamal,” an officer said.

Thompson responded that he was not resisting.

In one video, an officer can be heard trying to subdue him and, at one point, threatens to punch him.

“Quit grabbing me,” an officer told Thompson. “I’m going to punch you in the f-----g face if you grab me one more f-----g time.”

The officer asked Thompson if he understood, and he responded, “Yes.”

As the officers tried to cuff Thompson and shackle his legs, he repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.”

Shortly later, an officer tells Thompson to relax.

“You’re in custody. It’s over,” the officer said.

In footage from another body camera, Thompson, who is now shackled at his ankles and handcuffed, is helped onto a chair. An exhausted Thompson repeatedly asks for water and then slumps over and has to support his torso on an officer’s body so he doesn’t fall off the chair.

The officer tells Thompson, “Just lean on me, buddy.”

The entire struggle lasted about 25 minutes from Thompson’s first encounter with police until its end, when he was taken away on a stretcher.

Police response

Police released a nearly 20-minute video on Wednesday that they said should be viewed along with the body camera video released by the AG’s Office to provide more context for officers’ actions.

Police Chief Marc Yamada, speaking at the beginning of the video, said he holds the department “to the highest standards of accountability and sharing information with our community is one of my top priorities.”

The video includes excerpts of multiple 911 calls made by a person identified as Thompson’s friend, who reported someone in the lobby of the apartment complex who seemed dazed and was talking to himself.

“He has literally not been sleeping. I think it’s been like three days now,” the caller said. “He has to be off his medicine.”

The same person called 911 a second time to say the person ran away from an ambulance that arrived for him but then returned to the apartment complex and was refusing to leave. Thompson’s friend asked police to respond.

“We just want him to get home safely and take his meds,” the caller said.

The investigation

The attorney general’s office’s first statement on Thompson’s death, in late December, said that Thompson experienced a medical crisis about two hours after admission to the hospital and that he died on Dec. 22, a week later.

In January, the attorney general identified seven patrol officers involved in the interaction with Thompson. The officers have not been charged with a crime or accused of wrongdoing.

The attorney general’s office has not said when it is expected to complete its investigation.

Thompson’s family could not be reached for comment.

This story has been updated to include the Montgomery County Police response.