Revealed: officers appear to hold Michael Kenyon, 30, to hot pavement in July, causing third-degree burns
On 6 July 2024, a day when temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona, reached 114F (45.5C), Michael Kenyon was walking to his local store to buy a soda when two officers of the city’s police department stopped him.
They hastily told him he was being detained, Kenyon recalls, without clearly stating why. Two more officers arrived.
Surveillance footage from across the parking lot, which was viewed by the Guardian, shows the 30-year-old on the pavement soon after, with several officers on top of him and holding him down. Once they lift Kenyon off the ground after roughly four minutes, he appears limp.
3rd degree burns are serious business. It means the skin is completely destroyed and won’t heal, and potential deep tissue damage all the way to the bone. Treatment typically requires skin grafts taken from other parts of the body.