Washington, Mar 21 (EFE).- New video evidence shows several police officers huddled over the body of a young African-American, who died on March 6 of suffocation in police custody, according to national media published this Tuesday.
Irvo Otino, 28, died while waiting in a room at the Central Virginia State Hospital (USA), where he was sent from a Henrico County jail.
Surveillance cameras recorded Otieno, handcuffed and in leg shackles, being escorted to the admission room of the health center, located in Dinwiddie County, at 4:19 p.m. local time (8:19 p.m. GMT) on March 6.
The recording shows how the young man is laid on the ground by the agents and, ten minutes later, after he turned on his side with three people holding him, more agents and health workers come to immobilize him.
Otieno is turned on his back, where several policemen seem to hold him with their knees and an officer grabs his head by grabbing his braided hair.
After 12 minutes immobilized, an agent is seen trying to take his pulse, but Otieno does not respond and three minutes they try to revive him.
Last Thursday three hospital workers were charged in Otieno’s death, in addition to the seven officers from the Henrico sheriff’s office, who were arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
Otieno had been arrested and placed in emergency custody, used with individuals who may have mental illness, after being charged with assaulting a Henrico County police officer on March 3, local authorities said.
The day after he was arrested, Otieno was taken to the state hospital, where he later died.
The case of this young African-American comes just over two months after the death of Tire Nichols, a black man who was beaten to death by police in Memphis, sparking outrage across the country.
The US police have been accused by human rights organizations of using violence disproportionately towards the black population in the country.
Nearly a third of all people killed by police in the US in 2021 were African-Americans, despite being only 13% of the country’s population, according to the organization Mapping Police Violence.
