Global Courant 2023-05-26 04:13:04
JACKSON, Ms. (AP) — Three former police officers indicted by a Mississippi grand jury joked about a man dying in their custody, with one wondering if they should call an ambulance for the man immediately, body camera footage shows.
Officials in the capital of Jackson state announced this on Wednesday had indicted a Grand Jury in Mississippi two former police officers on murder charges and another ex-cop on manslaughter charges in the death of a black man who is seen on video being pinned down and repeatedly shocked with stun guns during a New Year’s Eve arrest. The city released hours of body camera footage detailing the encounter, which The Associated Press covered.
The officers had tackled Keith Murriel while arresting him for allegedly trespassing at a hotel after asking him to leave the building’s parking lot. The footage showed then-agents Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land struggling to handcuff Murriel as he was stunned numerous times for over 10 minutes.
McCarty and Willis are black and Land is white, according to Melissa Faith Payne, a city spokesman.
After officers handcuffed Murriel, they placed him horizontally in the back of a patrol car. Seventeen minutes of the hour-long body camera footage show officers attempting to place Murriel in the vehicle. The remaining 43 minutes of footage show no paramedics arriving or the officers checking on Murriel to see if he needs immediate medical attention. The footage has been broken up into multiple clips, and it’s unclear if officers attended Murriel off-camera.
What is clear is that during that 43-minute period, the officers joked about the encounter.
“I hope (he) is asleep. Because when he sleeps, it’s a good ride,” Willis can be heard saying on camera, using a racial slur to refer to Murriel. “It was funny to see (his) feet in the air… It was funny at first. After a while it got annoying.”
After officers left Murriel in the patrol vehicle, Willis said he was going to call a sergeant to ask when officers should call an American Medical Response, or AMR, ambulance.
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“I don’t know if he wants to wait until we get down (to the station) to do this until I give him AMR,” Willis said. “At least that way he’s already down there, because when we open the door, he’s going to try to get out.”
The clip from Willis’s body cam ends after an hour. Paramedics arrived 12 minutes after the next clip from Willis’s body camera. When a paramedic opened the back door of the patrol vehicle, he noticed that Murriel was not breathing.
McCarty then told one of the paramedics that Murriel was “on something.” Jackson police did not specify whether any narcotics were found in Murriel’s toxicology report.
Paramedics performed CPR before Murriel was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Willis’ body camera footage shows him telling someone that Murriel choked on his own vomit.
In an email, Francis Springer, an attorney for McCarty, wrote that her client “sincerely regrets the death of Mr. Muriel and extends his sincere condolences to his family and friends.”
“Ms. McCarty does not believe she is guilty of the crime she is charged with or any other crime. She will enter a not guilty plea,” Springer wrote.
A lawyer for Land declined to comment. The Hinds County District Attorney’s Office and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about whether Willis had hired a lawyer.
Daryl Washington, an attorney for Murriel’s family, said the language and tactics used by the officers justified their charges.
“You wonder how these cops act when they’re not caught on their own bodycam,” Washington said. “But these officers knew their body cameras were on and they felt very comfortable thinking nothing would happen to them. Fortunately, Keith’s family will not allow this to be swept under the rug, as many of these things usually are.” .”
Murriel’s family has filed a civil lawsuit against the officers. Washington said city officials did not give them enough time to review the footage before it was released to the public. Some family members first saw the images in news reports.
“We expected to have at least a few days to prepare,” he said.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at Wednesday’s news conference that the city is now releasing body camera images as a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigation into the death was completed. The officers — all ex-members of the Jackson Police Department — were charged on May 12.
All three officers were placed on administrative leave following the incident. McCarty was fired in February and Willis and Land in April.
Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones told it WJTV TV that Land is free on $75,000 bail and McCarty on $150,000 bail. The sheriff said Wednesday that Willis had not yet been arrested, and a department spokesman did not respond to a telephone message on Thursday asking if he was in custody.
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Michael Goldberg serves on the Corps for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues. Follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.
