Federal agent kneels on Portland protester’s back as she screams ‘I can’t breathe’
A federal officer in Portland kneeled on the back of a protester as she repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” video shows.
The footage, shared on Twitter early Monday by a Blaze TV reporter, shows a woman being taken into custody outside a federal courthouse in Portland, which has been rocked by nightly protests in wake of George Floyd’s death in late May.
“Get off of me!” the woman screams at a federal agent with his knee in her back, the video shows. “Why? Why are you doing this?”
A second federal agent then grabs the woman’s left arm as someone yells for her to stop resisting, the clip shows.
“I can’t breathe!” the woman then says. “I can’t breathe! I cannot breathe.”
One federal officer tries to detain the woman as a second agent continues to keep his left knee in her back, the video shows.
“Why?” the woman then screams repeatedly as her face is pressed into asphalt. “What the f–k is happening? Why, why would you pick me? Why would you pick me? Answer! Why? Why are you doing this?”
The woman, who appears to be bleeding from her nose, then asks for her cellphone as a federal officer continues press his knee into her lower back, video shows.
Someone in the crowd then asks her name, which she provides, according to the footage.
The woman was later identified on Twitter as Noelle Mandolfo by a photographer who said she was arrested with her.
A second clip shows the bloodied woman being led away by the federal agents as she appeared to say that someone spit on her. She and a second woman are then taken into custody, video shows.
It’s unclear if they were charged.
The confrontation took place amid ongoing clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, including the federal agents who have been deployed to the city by the Trump administration to quell the ongoing violence.
Floyd, who was black, died May 25 after Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin was seen on viral video kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as he repeatedly pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.
Chauvin, who was fired the following day along with three other cops at the scene, was charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. He remains jailed on $1.25 million bond pending trial.
The other former cops – Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng – have been charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.