• Thu. Mar 23rd, 2023

What To Know About Irvo Otieno, Whose Death At A Mental Wellness Facility Sparked ten Murder Charges

ByEditor

Mar 18, 2023

Updated Mar 17, 2023, 02:49pm EDT

Topline

Prosecutors say Black musician Irvo Otieno was smothered to death on March six in Henrico, Virginia, by police officers who treated him brutally though transferring him from a county jail to a mental wellness facility, an incident a lawyer representing the Otieno family members compared to the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

officers pinned him to the ground and smothered him, prosecutors say. (Courtesy of Ben Crump Law by way of AP)Related Press

Important Details

The County Commonwealth’s Lawyer Ann Cabell Baskervill stated an “extremely clear” and “extremely alarming” video shows deputies restraining Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old Black musician, by placing their physique weight on him and 1 officer’s knee on his neck for 12 minutes shortly right after admitting him to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County.

Ten people—seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and 3 staff at Central State Hospital—have been charged with second-degree murder.

Attorneys for the Otieno family members stated officers “force rushed” Otieno, who was handcuffed, naked and surrounded by feces in his jail cell, against a metal bed and a really hard wall, ahead of transferring him to the mental facility exactly where seven deputies, 4 of whom weighed at least 250 pounds, pushed down on “every aspect of [Otieno’s] physique.”

Otieno’s family members and attorneys stated Otieno did not resist or pose a threat to the officers and appeared to be “in among lifelessness and unconsciousness” in the video, which will not be released to the public.

The Workplace of Chief Health-related Examiner identified Otieno’s lead to of death as asphyxiation in a preliminary report.

The Henrico Fraternal Order of Police Lodge four, the neighborhood police union, stated in a statement Otieno’s death was tragic, but defended the officers, saying police function is “difficult” mainly because of the “possibility of becoming criminally charged though performing their duty.”

Caleb Kershner, an lawyer representing 1 of the deputies, named the second-degree murder charge an “extreme measure.”

Important Background

Otieno was taken into custody on March three by Henrico County police responding to a report of a doable burglary. A neighbor named police more than issues of Otieno gathering lawn lights from a neighbor’s yard, which Mark Krudys, an lawyer for the Otieno family members, stated was aspect of a mental wellness crisis. Otieno’s mother attempted to de-escalate the police officers that responded to the incident, Krudys stated. Officers took Otieno to a hospital for evaluation, exactly where authorities say he assaulted 3 officers, who then took him to a neighborhood jail and charged him with assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct in a hospital and vandalism. Attorneys for Otieno’s family members stated through his 3-day remain in jail, ahead of becoming taken to the mental wellness facility, Otieno was pepper sprayed and denied the mental wellness medication he necessary.

Tangent

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump compared the incident to the killing of George Floyd in Could 2020, as each Floyd and Otieno had been forcibly held to the ground by officers. Crump has offered legal solutions to the households of unarmed Black victims of police violence, like Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

What To Watch For

The ten folks charged with second-degree murder will seem ahead of a Virginia grand jury on Tuesday. Baskerville also stated further charges and arrests are pending.

Important Quote

“It is actually shocking that almost 3 years right after the brutal killing of George Floyd by police, one more family members is grieving a loved 1 who allegedly died in the precise exact same manner,” Crump stated.

Additional Reading

ten folks connected to the death of a 28-year-old Black man at a mental wellness facility face murder charges. Here’s what we know (CNN)

Video shows deputies smother Va. man for 11 minutes ahead of death, family members says (The Washington Post)

Video of Virginia man who died at hospital shows ‘absolute brutality’ by deputies, family members says (NBC News)

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I am an explainers and trends reporter for Forbes. I previously worked on Forbes’s wealth group exactly where I covered billionaires. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in Could and spent that summer season functioning on Forbes’s Major Colleges list. Ahead of that, I served as a news editor for Penn’s student newspaper, The Every day Pennsylvanian, as effectively as a digital intern for NBC News and a foreign desk intern for Vox.

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