‘I Can’t Breathe’: New Movie Tells Story of Man’s Near Death Experience After Assault by Police

'There is something after this life'

Screenshot from movie, "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," depicting the spirit of Tom Laresca observing what happened after his death, allegedly caused by being repeatedly sprayed in the face with pepper spray by Palm Beach Sergeant David Kalmus until he stopped breathing, in front of his own home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

In 1998, Tom Laresca went for a walk in his neighborhood in Boca Raton, Florida. That walk would alter the course of his life.

He'd gotten into an argument with his father and brother over his decision to report his boss for securities fraud—which resulted in the company folding and Laresca losing his well-paying job—so he went for a walk to cool down.

Screenshot from the movie "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," showing Tom Laresca going for a walk to cool down after an argument between him and his father and brother became heated in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

At the time, Laresca lived in one of the most exclusive subdivisions in Boca Raton, Boca Grove. What he didn’t know was that an armed burglar had been prowling his neighborhood and that police had been stationed throughout the subdivision. A neighbor saw Laresca walking and didn’t recognize him in the dark hooded sweatshirt he was wearing, so the neighbor called the police.

“All of a sudden I see five police officers running down the street,” Laresca told The Epoch Times. “I was about 10 feet in front of my house, and I was pointing to it saying, ‘I live here. What’s the problem?’ I had never been arrested before. Then I see the security guard there and I was telling him to tell the police officers I live here. That’s when someone pepper sprayed me in the face. I didn’t see it coming.”

The home where Tom Laresca lived in Boca Raton, Fla., when he was assaulted by police for allegedly breaking into his own home on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

What happened next is the subject of a new movie, “I Can’t Breath (God Forgive Them)” starring Kevin Sorbo, available now to stream on Amazon.

The officers surrounded him. One yanked down his shorts, leaving him naked from the waist down. His face felt like it was on fire from the pepper spray. When he managed to open his eyes he saw an officer pointing a gun at his chest saying he was going to shoot.

Laresca’s next move was a reflex. Having trained in multiple forms of martial arts, Laresca instinctively used his hand to slap the gun to the ground. It was a stupid move, he admitted. He knew the police would retaliate.

After shoving him to the ground, they cuffed him. The police report says they pepper sprayed him four more times. Laresca insists it was far more.

A collection of documents (pdf) support Laresca’s account of what happened.

‘He Is Resisting Arrest’

According to the deposition of the security guard, Santiago Diaz, the police hogtied Laresca with a strap one of the officers had in his vehicle. He was already cuffed. As the police had Laresca pinned to the ground, Diaz heard him screaming for his father and brother. He called out to God, and to Jesus, “a lot.”

Screenshot from deposition of security guard, Santiago Diaz, who witnessed the Jan. 7, 1998, arrest of Tom Laresca for allegedly breaking into his own house. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

He also heard Laresca say several times that he couldn’t breathe. He heard Laresca say, “I’m dying, man, I cannot breathe, I can’t breathe.”

“He said that twice,” Diaz stated.

Asked if he saw the police use mace, Diaz said he saw it one time. But he also admitted he wasn’t there the whole time. He was “running back and forth” to see how the other residents were doing. According to the police report, they pepper-sprayed Laresca four times. Diaz told the police that Laresca was a resident and it was his house they were in front of.

“He is resisting arrest,” the officer said.

Screenshot from police report accusing Tom Laresca of breaking into his own house, resisting arrest, and assaulting police officers on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

The police report lists three felony offenses: burglary, resisting an officer with violence, and assault and battery of a law enforcement officer.

Diaz said the police spent about a half hour subduing Laresca, “trying to calm him down,” and Laresca said the police pepper sprayed him for 15 minutes while restraining him on the ground.

According to the emergency medical services report, an ambulance arrived at the subdivision at 1:03 a.m. but was not allowed to come to the scene for another 32 minutes. It was during that half-hour that Laresca said the police continued their assault.

Screenshot from deposition of security guard Santiago Diaz, who witnessed the Jan. 7, 1998, arrest of Tom Laresca for allegedly breaking into his own house. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

“After 15 minutes of being pepper sprayed, I can’t breathe,” Laresca recalled. “The cop is on top of me and I’m screaming, ‘I can’t breathe, you’re killing me, I need water.’ It’s getting worse. They were spraying it in my face, in my mouth. I can’t get air. My throat is swollen. I’m coughing up blood. I asked the cop if he was trying to kill me and he said, ‘yes.’ That’s when I knew I was in serious trouble. No one was going to help me and he wasn’t going to stop until I was dead.”

So, Laresca played dead. He stopped moving and he held what little breath he had left in his lungs. The officer bought it. He got up, but not before giving Laresca one last slap to what he thought was Laresca’s dead body. “Good,” Laresca heard him say.

Laresca then made the mistake of telling the officer he was still alive. The last thing he remembers was the officer bending down to deliver a steady stream of pepper spray into his face. He said he remembers the sensation of dying and feeling a gust of wind.

‘I Knew It Was God’

Laresca said then he had an out-of-body experience. He saw his body laying on the ground. He watched the police officers checking his pulse, and he remembered how “surreal” yet “amazingly peaceful” it all was. He then found himself in a room with everyone he had ever loved. They were crying. They knew he was dead.

Screenshot from movie, "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," showing the moment Tom Laresca's spirit left his body after allegedly being pepper sprayed to the point of death in front of his own home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

“I think God wanted to see if I was willing to leave them,” Laresca said.

He then found himself in another room. This time, he was surrounded by everyone who had ever done him wrong, including the police officers. He could feel his anger surging. All of the rage and bitter hurt he had ever felt was welling up from the depths of his soul. Then he heard a voice.

“I knew it was God,” Laresca said. “He was saying I had to forgive them. I was stunned. But I realized I had to do that in order to go to heaven.”

As soon as he spoke the words, “I forgive them,” Laresca felt himself lifting upward. Above, he saw the bright light that many others have described seeing during a near-death experience (NDE). Despite the intensity, the light did not hurt his eyes. It welcomed him. He was going to heaven. But then he realized something. He didn’t want to go.

Screenshot of EMS report showing 32 minutes elapsed from the time of arrival until emergency medical technicians were allowed to enter the gated community to render emergency assistance to Tom Laresca on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tome Laresca

“I had started some charities,” he said. “I still had too much to do in life. So I started fighting to go back, and that’s when I came to in the ambulance.”

Laresca recalled how EMS attendants immediately placed an oxygen mask on his face. But the flow of oxygen stopped suddenly. Then he saw the officer who allegedly wanted him dead. He was in the ambulance with him, and Laresca blacked out.

“When I woke up I was in a place where they wanted to psychologically evaluate me for attacking five officers,” Laresca said.

According to the hospital report, Laresca was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for an “acute psychotic episode.”

An annual employee review for Sgt. David P. Kalmus for the period of April 1984 to April 1985. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

The officer who Laresca said tried to kill him was David Kalmus. According to his annual employee overview for the year April 1984 to April 1985, Kalmus treated everyone “in the same manner as he would deal with an impaired, obnoxious, uncooperative drunk driver that he was interviewing,” and “co-workers find it difficult to communicate and work with him.” He was also known to “deviate from established operating procedures.” It was the opinion of the individual conducting the assessment that “it would be detrimental” to the department for him to remain in his role as a road patrolman.

Screenshot from the movie "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," showing Sergeant David Kalmus confronting Tom Laresca in front of his own home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

Cancer and a Movie Script

Months passed. Lawyers came and went. Then, just when Laresca thought things might be settling down, he was diagnosed with cancer.

He had been feeling some discomfort in his groin. Doctors thought he had injured himself playing baseball. After four hours of exploratory surgery, he was informed he had cancer in his testicles, stomach, and lungs. Chemotherapy was started immediately. He was in the hospital for a week. Then he returned home for a week to regain strength. Every other week he would go back for more. Two years later he was in remission. Between lawyers and hospital fees, Laresca had to sell his home.

At 38, he was living back home with his parents in New York, where he was born and raised.

On June 7, 1999, due to his battle with cancer, Florida Assistant State Attorney Robert A. Gentile filed a nolle prosequi in the case and dropped the charges against Tom Laresca. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

On June 7, 1999, due to his battle with cancer, Florida prosecutors dropped the charges against Laresca.

“For a while I tried to forget about it.” Laresca said. He was tired. The battle for vindication and the fight to survive cancer was exhausting. He tried to go back to work, to move on. But the more he thought about what those police officers had done to him the more he was determined to exculpate himself. He began asking for documents: hospital reports, EMS reports, and police reports. He found discrepancies, inconsistencies, and lies. Years later, he had enough for a book. But even after a couple of talk shows and some favorable reviews, the book didn’t get much traction.

Then came the idea to turn it into a movie script. Years of the runaround led to another dead end. But somewhere along the way, the script made it into the hands of actor Kevin Sorbo. Three months later, filming began.

Tom Laresca (back), with sons Jesse (L) and Thomas (2nd L), wife Caterina (2nd R), and son Joey at Tom's mother's house in Staten Island, N.Y., in 2006. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

“It is already out on Amazon prime,“ Laresca said, explaining that while it usually takes months to ”get on there,” Amazon picked it up in the first week of distribution. The trailer is available on social media. The “red carpet” premiere was held at Union Square Stadium on Broadway in New York in August.

The movie will be for sale on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on Oct. 25. The movie was a finalist in the Edo Awards in Africa for best feature film out of 1,500 films worldwide.

‘Some Degree of Forgiveness’

Sorbo, known for his roles in several faith-based movies and as the lead character in the 1990s TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, plays the part of the police department’s union attorney assigned to represent Kalmus.

Screenshot from movie, "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," showing sheriff's department union attorney—played by Kevin Sorbo—speaking with Sergeant David Kalmus, who allegedly pepper sprayed Tom Laresca to death in front of his own home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

“I kept thinking I read about this in the news, but there are so many horrible things happening out there it’s hard to keep tabs on anything,” Sorbo told The Epoch Times. “When I was approached to play one of the jerks in the movie, I asked them to tell me a little more about it. I wasn’t there, so I can’t be a character witness. But this happened to him and it’s pretty horrible.”

As Sorbo explained, while he believes most police officers are pretty good people, he knows there are bad apples in every profession. What happened to Laresca was unacceptable.

“Do I believe his story? Yeah, I believe his story,” Sorbo asserted. “I believe these things can happen out there, Tom has no criminal record whatsoever. He was just taking a walk and this happened. I don’t know if he was mistaken for someone else. All I know is the [attorney] I play in the movie didn’t really want to hear anything other than his own story. It’s horrible.”

What strikes Sorbo as most amazing is how the event strengthened rather than destroyed Laresca’s faith.

Kevin Sorbo. Courtesy of Kevin Sorbo

“It’s pretty interesting in terms of what he could have done, just being angry and hateful like most people would,” Sorbo said, recalling another movie he starred in, Soul Surfer, about a 13-year-old girl named Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm to a shark attack off the north coast of Kawai, Hawaii, but didn’t allow it to stunt her faith.

“Her response was ’this is God’s way' of letting her get out His word,” Sorbo said.

“You might not be able to forget the bad things that happen to you but somewhere along the line you have to be able to find some degree of forgiveness,” Sorbo said. “Otherwise it hurts you more than it does anyone else.”

Ultimately, Laresca wants vindication. He wants the police involved to confess what happened. Until then, he knows people will doubt his story. In the meantime, he just wants people to know that death is nothing to fear.

“I want to be able to tell people what it’s like to cross over and that there is something after this life,” Laresca said. “There is God, and I think it will give great hope to people to know that when you do take your last breath here, there is a much better place waiting for you if you know God.”

Screenshot from the movie "I Can't Breathe: God Forgive Them," depicting the spirit of Tom Laresca being welcomed by "the bright light," which so many have described in their near-death experience, after being pepper sprayed until he stopped breathing in front of his own home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Jan. 7, 1998. Courtesy of Tom Laresca

The Epoch Times reached out to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office several times for comment.