CHILLING ECHO OF HIS SON’S LAST WORD

Texas dad’s tale one of several similar to Floyd’s, where vics say they can’t breathe

Javier Ambler Sr. now knows his son cried “I can’t breathe” over and over as he died in police custody in Texas, but he can’t bring himself to watch the newly released body-camera video.

Not after watching George Floyd die under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer after uttering the same phrase on a Minneapolis street May 25.

“Once I saw the George Floyd video, it just sent shock waves through my body, through my spine, and I thought about my boy,” Ambler Sr., 67, told the Daily News in an emotional phone interview.

“I cry every day, every day, you know. He was my best friend,” he said of his son, Javier Ambler II, who died last year during an arrest in Austin.

“He wasn’t resisting arrest, he was trying to resist suffocation,” the devastated dad told The News.

He said his eldest child should still be alive today, like untold others including Floyd and Eric Garner, the man who cried “I can’t breathe” while in a chokehold during a 2014 arrest on Staten Island.

“For people who haven’t committed an outrageous offense, there should be things you just don’t do,” he said of the aggressive tactics used on his son.

“It shouldn’t have escalated like that. If someone says they can’t breathe, call a timeout, get them upright, run proper first aid,” he said.

The retired veteran who served 23 years in the U.S. Army said it’s “impossible” to sit through the chilling footage of his son calling the deputies “sir” with his last words. But he wants those officers to watch it.

“All of them need to look at the video and see what they did to my boy,” he said.

Ambler’s son was driving home on March 28, 2019, when a Williamson County sheriff ’s deputy patroling with a crew from the A&E reality show “Live PD” pulled him over for failing to dim the headlights of his Honda Pilot.

After a 22-minute pursuit that crossed into neighboring Travis County and ended just north of downtown Austin at 1:45 a.m., Ambler, a 400-pound former football player, exited his vehicle with his hands up, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

With the “Live PD” cameras rolling, the deputy drew his gun and then tased Ambler, 40.

Another deputy with another “Live PD” crew quickly arrived on the scene, as did an Austin cop whose body-camera video captured Ambler stomachdown on the ground, warning he was in medical distress.

“I have congestive heart failure. I can’t breathe,” Ambler says in the disturbing video made public this month.

“I am not resisting,” he pleads as deputies pull his arms back to handcuff him. “Sir, I can’t breathe. … Please.”

Ambler lost consciousness at the scene.

His death was ruled a homicide caused by congestive heart failure and hypertensive cardiovascular disease associated with morbid obesity “in combination with forcible restraint.”

The Travis County district attorney is investigating Ambler’s death and whether he was chased to provide entertainment for the TV show, which was canceled Wednesday.

“I think ‘Live PD’ being there probably influenced them. Maybe they were trying to impress and show how tough they are,” Ambler’s dad told The News.

Ambler’s son is one of several men who have died in police custody after