[Jany] LAPD sergeant broke policy by kneeling on neck of NBA player Jaxson Hayes during arrest. Hayes shouted, “I can’t breathe,” and another officer used a Taser on him twice, hitting him once in the chest.

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An LAPD sergeant violated department policy by kneeling on the neck of NBA player Jaxson Hayes while arresting him in response to a call about a domestic dispute last July, the Los Angeles Police Commission ruled Tuesday.

After Hayes, a 6-foot-11 center for the New Orleans Pelicans, was taken to the ground by police outside a Woodland Hills home, Sgt. Darren Holst began kneeling on his neck.

Hayes shouted, “I can’t breathe,” and another officer used a Taser on him twice, hitting him once in the chest, LAPD Chief Michel Moore wrote in a report released after the Police Commission’s weekly meeting Tuesday. Commissioners agreed with the chief’s findings that the knee-on-the-neck maneuver went against department protocols but that the use of the Taser was justified.

In reaching his conclusion, Moore cited a use-of-force review board investigation, which found that Holst twice put his knee on the basketball player’s neck, first for four seconds, and then for 11 seconds. Moore wrote that the sergeant’s tactic “resulted in unintentional but direct pressure to Hayes’ trachea or windpipe” — though not with enough force to render Hayes unconscious.

Intentional or not, Moore said that he agreed with the board’s finding that “an officer with similar training and experience as Sergeant Holst, in the same situation, would not reasonably believe that the applying direct pressure to the trachea or windpipe was proportional, objectively reasonable, or necessary.”

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The officer who deployed the Taser, Frank Duarte, later told investigators that when he heard Hayes shouting for air and noticed Holst kneeling near Hayes’ neck, he asked Holst to get off, according to the report. Hayes then began trying to stand up again, and Duarte fired the Taser into his chest, said the report, quoting Duarte.

Moore wrote that he agreed with the review board’s finding that Duarte’s use of the Taser was justified, given Hayes’ “level of resistance.” He further said the fact that the officers present weren’t wearing masks as was required at the time of the arrest will be addressed “at the divisional level.”