Seven deputies and three hospital workers charged with second-degree murder in death of Black man at Virginia mental facility
A large group of sheriff’s deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the floor until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video of the incident earlier this month shows.
The footage obtained on Tuesday, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he was led into a room at Central State hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was going to be admitted on 6 March. For most of the duration of the video, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to number 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.
The death of the 28-year-old Black man has led to second-degree murder charges against seven deputies and three hospital workers and an outcry from his family, who said he was brutally mistreated, both at the state hospital and while in law enforcement custody for several days earlier. Attorneys for many of the defendants have said they will vigorously fight the charges.
Relatives of Otieno were shown video from the hospital last week by a prosecutor, Dinwiddie commonwealth’s attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill, who said that she planned to publicly release it on Tuesday.
But attorneys for at least two of the defendants sought to block the video’s release, arguing that it could hinder a fair trial. The Associated Press obtained it and other footage on Tuesday through a link included in a public court filing made by Baskervill.
According to timestamps in the footage, which was first reported by the , an SUV carrying Otieno arrived at the hospital just before 4pm. By 4.19pm, a different camera shows him being forcibly led into a room with tables and chairs. He is quickly hauled toward a seat before he eventually slumps to the floor, initially in a seated position then lying flat.
As time passes, an increasing number of workers hold him down as he appears to start to move on the floor. Otieno’s shirtless body is difficult to see at times, obscured by people at least partly on top of him or someone standing in the way of the camera.
