Man Suffered Burns When Police Held Him on Pavement

The temperature in Phoenix reached 114 degrees on July 6, a fact that became painfully clear to Michael Kenyon. As he went to buy a drink, he was confronted by police officers who held him down on the hot pavement for four minutes, according to surveillance video viewed by the Guardian. Medical records show the 30-year-old, who'd been wearing a tank top and shorts, suffered third-degree burns to his face, chest, arms, and legs. "Hospital photos show deep burn scars and skin peeled off across his body," per the Guardian. Police had been searching for an alleged thief. Kenyon wasn't their guy, a rep confirmed. He did have an outstanding warrant for failing to appear on a drug charge, but Kenyon and the officers say they weren't aware of it, per KNXV.

"Please … I didn't do anything," Kenyon is heard saying in a video filmed by a bystander, per the Guardian. "I didn't understand why people wouldn't help me as I was screaming in pain … like I was dying," he now tells the outlet. "It felt like acid burning my skin." He says he apparently fell unconscious and came to handcuffed to a hospital bed, where he stayed for more than a month. Third-degree burns can take months to heal, while the scars can cause physical limitations for years, an expert tells the Guardian. Almost four months later, Kenyon is still missing bits of flesh, per KNXV.

Police, who are conducting internal investigations, have not released body-camera footage of the arrest. The department says Kenyon "struggled with police, which [resulted] with him being taken to the ground on the hot asphalt." The pavement was estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees, reports CBS News. "His skin was cooked on asphalt," Kenyon attorney Bobby DiCello tells KNXV, noting a lawsuit is being prepared. "A guy was walking to the store to get a soda and then minutes later he's wondering if he's going to die, and that's really endemic of where this department is at," another Kenton attorney, Steve Benedetto, tells the Guardian. Several others have been held on hot pavement by Phoenix police in recent years, including a man who died. (More Phoenix stories.)