A grand jury on Friday indicted two Canton police officers in the April death of Frank Tyson, charging both with reckless homicide. The officers, Camden Burch and Beau Schoenegge, were booked Friday into Stark County Jail.
Stark County Prosecutor Kyle Stone, in a press conference Saturday, said reckless homicide, a third-degree felony, carries a potential of 36 months' imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000.
"No one is above the law and no one is so far below it that they don't deserve its protections,” Stone said.
The press conference was open to the public as well as media. Stone said he could not respond to questions about the grand jury testimony. He also had no response when asked how officers should have handled the situation differently or whether they expressed remorse.
One community member asked if charges would be brought against bystanders to the April 18 event.
“There was no evidence and no indication that the charges would be necessary for those individuals at this time,” he said.
Stone also would not comment on whether he was surprised by the indictments.
“I'm not going to give my own personal opinion about it,” he said. “We have thousands of cases a year that we evaluate and that we prosecute and that we have to navigate through. And this case would be no different, no matter who the defendants are. We would still process it and operate the same exact way.”
Attorney Bobby DiCello, representing Tyson's family, followed with his own press conference. He opened his remarks by exclaiming, “Now we know who the bad guy is, and it wasn’t Frank!”
DiCello said Stone “acted with courage by bringing these charges” and he thanked the prosecutor’s office for keeping him apprised of the past week’s developments.
Tyson’s brother, John Tyson, also spoke Saturday, saying his family has been praying for justice.
“The indictment was unexpected,” Tyson said. “We're going to take this small win and just build upon it and just go to the next stage.”
DiCello has compared Tyson’s death to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
During the press conference, Greater Stark County Urban League CEO Thomas West called for Canton police to adopt the guidelines in Congresswoman Emilia Sykes' proposed legislation on police de-escalation.
“We urge the city to implement all principles of the realignment of policing, including the establishment of a community policing advisory council board,” West said.
Tyson had been out of prison for just 13 days when his arrest and death occurred on April 18. He'd served 24 years on a kidnapping charge; his family said he was wrongfully imprisoned. He was fleeing from a crash site on the east side of Canton when officers encountered him at an AMVETS building around 8:30 pm.
Tyson reportedly resisted arrest and, as officers struggled to pin him to the ground and handcuff him, one officer pressed his knee into Tyson's back. He repeatedly yelled, "I can't breathe.” Body camera footage then shows Tyson lying motionless and handcuffed on the ground for several minutes before officers began administering CPR. He was later pronounced dead at Aultman Hospital.
In May, Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton gave Tyson's eulogy amid calls for justice from community members, Urban League and the Stark County NAACP.
