Video shows Virginia deputies and medical workers appearing to pile on top of Irvo Otieno before his death

A video capturing the final moments of Virginia native Ilvo Otieno’s life shows several police officers and medical staff piled up. over a 28-year-old black man before he finally stopped moving.

Surveillance video of the March 6 incident at Virginia’s Central State Hospital shows police officers handcuffing and dragging Otieno, appearing with shackles around his ankles, into a hospital room, where he was initially disarmed. We can see him moving to a table and finally laying him down and restraining him. Ground.

At one point, as many as a dozen sheriff’s deputies and hospital medical staff can be seen crowding around Otieno on the floor, with a few others standing nearby. The scene was so congested that Otieno was barely visible at the time, and it’s unclear what exactly was going on and how agents and medical personnel were involved with him.

Otieno According to The Washington Post, which obtained video of the altercation and released nine minutes of the footage, he was held for about 11 minutes before being seen not moving. , it is unknown how it was edited.

A few minutes after a deputy released Otieno’s limp body at approximately 4:40 p.m., workers began performing chest compressions and ablation before medical technicians draped a white sheet over him at 5:48 p.m. He is seen applying a defibrillator to his upper body. Video released by Post.

It’s unclear what was said during the encounter, as the video has no audio. Prosecutors said state police investigators were told Otieno had become belligerent while in the hospital.

The video was due to be released on Tuesday, but lawyers for two of the defendants said it could affect the pool of potential jurors and prevent the defendants from getting a fair trial. and tried to prevent its disclosure.

After Otieno’s family and their lawyer were shown footage of the encounter last week, Caroline Ouko said her son was “treated like a dog, worse than a dog.”

“He was killed. They took the breath out of my baby. They killed my baby,” Ouko said.

“What we have just seen is how inhumane law enforcement officials treat people with mental health crises as criminals instead of people in need of help. It was a commentary on the matter,” attorney Ben Crump told reporters.

“I can see them turning their backs on it.” Mark Kurdis, the Otieno family attorney, said:

Four of the members weighed at least 250 pounds, the heaviest weighing 320 pounds, according to court documents.

Last week, Virginia prosecutors charged seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and three hospital staff with second-degree murder in a March 6 contact.

Randy Joseph Boyer, Dwayne Alan Bramble, Jermaine Lover Branch, Bradley Thomas Disse, Tabitha Renee Revere, Brandon Edwards Rogers and Kyel D’Azur Sanders have been indicted, Dinwi said. The Dee County U.S. Attorney’s Office said Revere’s attorney was not listed online. Attorneys listed for the remaining defendants did not immediately respond to overnight requests for comment.

Disse’s attorney, Edward K. Nickel, previously said his client looked forward to defending himself. “The prosecution was initiated by criminal information, which is a very unusual way of starting the paperwork for an arrest in Virginia,” he said. “However, the final claims facing our clients will be decided by a grand jury next Tuesday.”

Branch president Cary Bowen says his client has been with the department for 24 years and “no one is known to be a bully.”

Prosecutors said agents took Otieno to a hospital around 3:58 p.m. and admitted him. Instead, “he suffocated to death thanks to at least seven people, including the defendant, riding on top of him and holding him down,” federal prosecutor Ann Cabell Baskerville said at a court hearing Wednesday. Courtroom video broadcast by NBC affiliate WWBT of Richmond.

Otieno was originally arrested on March 3 after Henrico’s police officers responded to a possible robbery call, police said in an earlier news release.

Officers placed Otieno under an “emergency protection order,” and Virginia law says such orders are used in cases of mental illness.

Officers then took Otieno to Parham Doctors Hospital, which houses a “crisis reception center,” and the police department said Otieno “became physically aggressive to officers” at the facility. He was taken to a local jail run by the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office and served time on several charges, including his three counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct in a hospital, and vandalism.

Officers also responded to another incident the previous day, March 2, and were reported to have “reported suspicious circumstances,” according to the police department. The call was reclassified as a “mental health issue” and no charges were filed, they said.

State police were called to investigate Otieno’s death at approximately 7:30 p.m. on March 6, days after the initial arrest.

Baskerville said it planned to release a video of the encounter that unfolded before Otieno’s death on Tuesday. , got the video ahead of its release.

The Henrico County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment overnight.

In an earlier statement, Henrico County Sheriff Alisa Gregory said her office was “cooperating fully with the Virginia State Police investigation.” We are conducting an independent investigation of

Otieno’s family, who have Kenyan roots, said the 28-year-old Otieno was a selfless person who cared about fairness.

His brother, Leon Ochien, described his brother’s death as “a tragic, senseless and inhumane nightmare”.

“Can someone explain why my brother isn’t here right now? Someone explain why my mother can’t sleep and eat,” Ochien said. “We are broken. Our hearts are broken.”