Video shows hospital patient pinned to floor before his death
CCTV footage shows a group of hospital staff and police pinning down a patient until he was motionless.
Irvo Otieno, 28, was handcuffed and held down for around 20 minutes at a psychiatric hospital in Virginia, US, where he was going to be admitted on March 6.
In the video which has no audio, a shirtless Mr Otieno is shown being forcibly led into a room with tables and chairs, before being pulled towards a seat.
Up to 10 people come to hold him down on the floor, with the people involved changing every so often. He eventually slumps to the floor, initially in a seated position then lying flat.
Workers then start attempting to revive Mr Otieno for up to an hour using CPR and injections without success, before a white sheet is placed over his body.
Three workers from the Central State Hospital and seven police officers were charged with second-degree murder in Dinwiddie County yesterday.
Prosecutor Ann Cabell Baskervill said: ‘He certainly did not deserve to be smothered to death, which is what happened.’
Some people may find the following video and images distressing.
She said the workers were holding him down ‘from his braids down to his toes’.
Mr Otieno’s family claims he was ‘brutally mistreated’ by hospital workers and police, but lawyers for the defendants say they will ‘vigorously’ fight the charges.
A prosecutor who obtained the hospital footage last week said she planned to publicly release it, but defence barristers attempted to block it – arguing it would not allow a fair trial.
Ms Baskervill claims Mr Otieno died of asphyxiation, but final post-mortem examinations have not yet been released.
There is currently a conflict between prosecution and defence over whether the injections contributed to his death or if he was already dead by the time they were administered.
Mr Otieno’s relatives called the footage ‘heartbreaking and disturbing’ and called for the US Department of Justice to intervene, comparing his treatment to torture.
Calling for ‘justice’ for her son, Caroline Ouko told a news conference: ‘Those 10 monsters, those 10 criminals, I was happy to hear that they were indicted.
‘And that is just the beginning step.’
The family is being represented by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer who also represented the family of George Floyd.
He claimed the treatment of Mr Otieno, who is black, bears ‘close parallels’ with Mr Floyd’s death while in police custody in Minneapolis in 2020.
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People civil rights group in the US, said: ‘Police are simply not a substitute for compassionate and informed mental health professionals.
‘Rather than neglecting and criminalising the black community, we need action to make sure no one experiences or witnesses this kind of violence at the hands of law enforcement ever again.’
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