DINWIDDIE, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors are scheduled to release video next week that allowed authorities in Virginia to charge seven officers and three psychiatric hospital employees with second-degree murder in the death of a man who was handcuffed and shackled.
Irvo Otieno’s family watched the video of his death on Thursday. With his permission, the images will be released to the public in the coming days, Dinwiddie County Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabel Baskervill told the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper.
Family attorneys described the video to reporters as an agonizing 12 minutes in which officers pushed, to the ground, and choked Otieno, an African-American man whose legs and arms were immobilized.
“You can see that they are pressing him with his back to the floor. Every part of his body is crushed with absolute brutality,” said the family’s lawyer, Mark Krudys.
Prosecutors said Otieno, 28, did not appear to be resisting and was sitting on a chair when officers lowered him to the floor.
The 12-minute video also shows a lack of urgency to help Otieno following agents determined “that he was lifeless and had stopped breathing,” Krudys said.
To date, 10 people have been charged with second-degree murder in Otieno’s death — seven Henrico County police officers and three hospital employees.
Lawyers for those arrested have not yet seen the video.
“They show the video to the lawyers of the complainants. But we represent these people charged with murder who are in custody. It’s really disappointing. It seems like it’s more important to win public sympathy and get the case aired through the press than to allow the criminal justice process to work the way it’s supposed to,” defense attorney Peter Baruch told the New York newspaper. Richmond.
