Arizona cops do nothing while Sean Bickings drowns in Tempe Town Lake

Source: Douglas Sacha / Getty

Police officers in Tempe, Arizona are under heavy scrutiny after literally allowing a man to drown in a local lake in an act of self-harm. Oh, we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the fact that they did this in front of the man’s grief-stricken wife while she begged for their help.

Arizona Cops Refuse To Help Drowning Man

In the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas massacre we watched “trained” police officers stand by and watch 19 children be murdered. Word in the news was that several of them were afraid to confront the murderous gunman. Clearly, the “to serve and protect” email went to their spam box.

According to a DailyMail report, three Tempe, Arizona police officers are on “non-disciplinary paid administrative leave” while the department investigates the death of 34-year-old Sean Bickings. Bickings and his wife allegedly had a “physical altercation” prior to being approached by police. While checking the couple’s IDs, Bickings climbed over a four-foot wall and jumped into Tempe Town Lake telling the officers that he was “going for a swim.”

Body camera footage reveals the conversation the officers had with Bickings expressly telling him that they would not come in to save him.

He said: ‘I’m drowning.’

One officer then replied: ‘Come back over to the pylon.’

Bickings said: ‘I can’t, I can’t.’

The other officer then said: ‘OK, I’m not jumping in after you.’

He begged: ‘Please help me. Please, please, please. I can’t touch. Oh God, Please help me. Help me.’

Officers threatened to arrest Bickings’ frantic wife for annoying them with her hysteria while her husband was dying.

Bickings’ wife who was still on the scene also pleaded with officers to intervene, saying; “I’m just distraught because he’s drowning right in front of you and you won’t help!”

But “BluE LiVeS mAtTeR”, right?

Arizona’s 12News spoke with Andy Anderson, a former assistant chief with Phoenix Police who said that “ideally” there would be someone with a mental health background to help officers once there was no threat.

“In reality, law enforcement did not have authority to detain him,” Anderson said. […] This is not a lake patrol team that has the equipment to do a water rescue, these are street cops.”