A grand jury indicted seven representatives from the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office and three employees at the hospital where the victim died after officers held her on the ground for more than 10 minutes, CBS News reported.
Otieno, 28, was transported handcuffed and shackled from the Henrico County Jail to Central Virginia State Hospital, a state mental health facility, on the afternoon of March 6.
The images showed at least two agents holding him down on the ground at the location, and police officers can be seen then rolling him onto the ground.
Later, more officers arrive, along with other hospital workers, and detain him.
At least nine people were caught on camera piling up on Otieno while the rest of the hospital staff looked on.
The immobilization lasted about 11 minutes, after which the young man died.
“My son was treated like a dog. Worse than a dog. My son was tortured,” said the deceased’s mother, Caroline Ouko, who reviewed the video before it was released.
The death of the Kenyan-born youth, who has lived in the United States since he was four, comes as the country’s police authorities face increasing scrutiny over arrests that result in death.
Earlier this year, Tire Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who was stopped at a traffic stop, was beaten by officers for about three minutes on the night of Jan. 7 in Memphis, Tennessee, and died three days later.
According to a study by the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the Government Oversight Project, the federal government doesn’t know exactly how many inmates die under police supervision.
“Every day people lose their lives in detention, detention and police custody, but we have no idea who they are, how they are dying or how best to prevent future deaths,” said Bree Spencer, director, in a statement from the interim program education fund.
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