Kill means, "to cause the death of", an entirely accurate description.
Breathe, in the event you have not noticed, involved taking air IN, while speaking involves pushing air OUT.
Try it and you will see. Or try not breathing, and you will also see.
I have been in a choke hold , speech is impossible , as is moving air in either direction past the blockage .
In a related matter , if you are ever choking on food, there is a prearranged distress signal , which is necessarily a pantomime.
That the guy was speaking demonstrates a clear airway so the "chokehold" is demonstrated to be loose enough that it can't have been the direct cause of death.
However, "I can't breathe" isn't a lie. His complaint was about his distress and difficulty which was proven to be serious by his subsequent collapse and death. Even if the chokehold specifically can't be blamed there was a stress in being arrested by a pile of policemen that was somehow too much for him.
I don't like several things about this situation, but there is not really any evidence present of police maliciousness here, so why is that what should be improved? If there is one thing I would like to have learned and see changed it would be better training for police in recognizing dangerous symptoms and health problems.
There is no means to forbid the police from grappling with arrestees ,but recognizing dangerous respiratory distress and applying oxygen or an ambu bag when needed might be reasonable training and save a dying person every now and then no matter why they are short of breath.
Also having an oxygen bottle in every patrol car would be pretty cheap and would improve such a situation with little training.
