Last week, we reported that hospital employees and seven sheriff’s deputies in Dinwiddie, Virginia, are facing second-degree murder charges after they were all allegedly caught on video smothering 28-year-old Black man Irvo Otieno to death after he had been taken into custody over what his family described as a mental health episode. Otieno’s family and their attorneys, which include civil attorney Ben Crump, reportedly viewed video footage of the incident, during which Otieno’s mother, Caroline Ouko, said her “son was treated like a dog—worse than a dog.”
At the time, Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said that “additional charges and arrests are pending,” but she declined to release the video to the public in order to “maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process at this point.” But on Tuesday, the Washington Post obtained and published nine minutes of surveillance video, which shows as many as 10 deputies and hospital staffers at Virginia’s Central State Hospital piling on top of Irvo Otieno for approximately 11 minutes while he was shackled and until he had completely stopped moving.
From the Post:
Minutes later, video shows workers beginning to apply chest compressions and a defibrillator machine to Otieno’s upper body, before a medical technician drapes him with a white sheet at 5:48 p.m.
According to Baskervill’s office, who said she had already planned to release the video to the public on Tuesday before the Post published it ahead of time, prosecutors will seek an indictment Tuesday for the 10 people charged in…
Read the full article here
