Video shows white man with hand around Black man’s neck as he calls 911 over bike

Milwaukee police say they are investigating a viral social media video depicting a white man with one of his hands around the neck of a frightened Black man while calling 911 about a neighbor's stolen bicycle.

A police spokesperson on Monday said officers know the 62-year-old white man's identity but didn't release his name, saying the investigation into the case was ongoing and that its findings would be forwarded to state prosecutors for review of potential charges.

The spokesperson wouldn't confirm or deny the name widely circulated on social media as belonging to the white man seen on video with a hand wrapped around the neck of a Black man, age 24, who is riding a bicycle that doesn't match the color of the one that the older man purports was stolen.

But the video of the 10 October confrontation in question shows the white man giving his address. And public records verify that a man by the same name and of the same age as the one identified widely online is listed as a resident of that address.

That man didn't respond to numerous requests for comment from the Guardian.

The video at the heart of the case shows the man wrapping his left hand around the neck of the younger Black man while holding a cellphone with his right hand. The man, speaking into the phone, accuses the man he is holding of stealing a bicycle out of a friend's yard.

The Black man looks at the man recording the video - who is also Black - with an expression full of fear and denies stealing the bike. He is on a blue bicycle, and the white man describes the stolen bike as a green one.