Police Officers Charged With Murder in 'Smothering' of Virginia Man

"What I saw today was heartbreaking," said the victim's mother. "It was disturbing, it was traumatic. My son was tortured."

Earlier this month, a Virginia man was killed when police officers and hospital employees "smothered" him to death. Now, the officers and medical workers involved in the killing have been charged with second-degree murder. Seven Henrico County sheriffs' deputies face charges for their involvement in the man's death.

"The family is truly grief-stricken after learning of the brutal nature of Irvo's death and his inhumane treatment in the hours preceding his death," a lawyer for the victim's family told NBC News. "The public, and experienced mental health professionals alike, will be appalled when the facts of this case are fully made known."

According to a statement from Henrico County police, 28-year-old Irvo Otieno was arrested earlier this month after police responded to a breaking and entering call. Otieno was believed to be a potential suspect in the crime and police arrested him and placed him under an "emergency custody order," which is used in cases of severe mental illness. According to police, Otieno was first taken to Parham Doctors' Hospital, where he became "physically assaultive towards officers." At this point, he was instead taken to a county jail, where he was booked on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct in a hospital, and vandalism.

Three days later, on March 6, he was taken to a state mental health facility. According to CNN, the officers eventually began to physically restrain Otieno during the intake process. Even though Otieno was already in handcuffs and leg irons, a total of seven officers and three hospital employees piled on top of him. At one point, at least 10 people were on top of Otieno, and he died of asphyxiation after being pinned on the ground for 12 minutes.

"Twelve minutes of him being splayed out on the ground," Dinwiddie, Virginia, prosecutor Ann Baskervill said. "It's just cruel and a demonstration of power that is unlawful — I mean, it killed him. They smothered him."

On March 16, the seven deputies involved in the killing were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Three hospital workers were also arrested and charged. The union representing Henrico County police released a statement, writing that, "Policing in America today is difficult, made even more so by the possibility of being criminally charged while performing their duty," adding that "the death of Mr. Otieno was tragic, and we express our condolences to his family. We also stand behind the seven accused deputies now charged with murder."

While body camera footage of Otieno's death has not yet been made public, prosecutors announced they would release the footage this week. Both Otieno's family and their lawyers have seen the footage. "What we just viewed on the videos … was a commentary on how inhumane law enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental health crisis as criminals, rather than treating them as people who are in need of help," civil rights attorney Ben Crump said during a press conference last week. "It was inhumane."

"What I saw today was heartbreaking," said Caroline Ouko, Otieno's mother, during the press conference. "It was disturbing, it was traumatic. My son was tortured, to put it right. I saw the torture."

Comments

[Don't look at me!]

I’m sure everyone is looking forward to seeing the video of someone dying.

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[Davedave]

Don't you know what site you're on? The racist loons round here will watch it over and over again. Some of them will be tugging themselves while watching it.

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[Rubbish!]

Ben Crump should bring some level-headed wisdom and dignity to the situation. He always does!

[SRG]

"Policing in America today is difficult, made even more so by the possibility of being criminally charged while performing their duty,"

I must have missed the part where smothering someone to death was part of the performance of a cop's duty.

[Jefferson's Ghost]

Fine print. Really, really tiny.

[Carey Allison]

The mewling snowflakes here are missing the most obvious point. The deceased had not just committed contempt of cop - by physically resisting and in the process touching one or more of his "rescuers", regardless of his mental state, his offense was aggravated contempt of cop in the first degree, for which the penalty is death. Killing him was no doubt unpleasant duty, but somebody had to do it.

[sarcasmic]

In high school I participated in one of those stupid pile up pictures. I remember being terrified and thinking I was going to die because I couldn't breathe with all these people on top of me. I couldn't protest because that would mean losing precious air. Thankfully everyone got up right after the click.

It's no surprise that doing that to subdue someone results in their death.

[Liberty_Belle]

How do 10 supposedly trained people come up with the only way to control an already handcuffed and manacled person is to dog-pile him ?

[Jefferson's Ghost]

Just for kicks?

[Libertariantranslator]

For the click.

[Vernon Depner]

Must be in the manual.

[Don't look at me!]

Moar money needed for training.

[Naime Bond]

I believe the appropriate penalty here would be 15 yards and an automatic First Down? On another note; On the police letterhead that they released the arrest details, it says ‘One Team One Community Safer Together’ Otieno looks like a big dude - I am thinking this video is going to rival '....The Killing (1956) Kola Kwariani bar fight scene....' by Kubrick.

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[mad.casual]

Before I can come to any conclusions, I’m going to need to know the ski… oh, shit!

[Nardz]

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[Link]

[Davedave]

You're right, deport all the non-native Americans. Leave the entire place to the native tribes.

[Libertariantranslator]

Indeed, Comancheria was America's anarcho-buffaloism, a stateless buffer between the 'Murrican White Terror and Mexico, which had long been a peaceful trading partner with Quing China. History shows how well anarchy performed in defiant warfare against an organized Political State with a written Constitution. Anyone eager to starve on a reservation need only vote for the Anarco-fascist Party.

[sarcasmic]

penis + potato + ocean liner = dictatorship

[Dillinger]

>>At one point, at least 10 people were on top of Otieno

acceptable form of restraint in the handbooks?

[Vernon Depner]

The important thing is that all the officers went home safe.

[EdG]

And don't forget the trained hospital staff, highly experienced in dealing with the mentally ill, who also went home safe.

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[Get To Da Chippah]

It's possible that there might have been drugs in the fellow's system. If so, any manner in which he died can be fully attributed to that, and not any actions the police or anyone else did.

I call it Floyd's Law.

[mad.casual]

There were drugs in his system. The medical staff put them there.

[sarcasmic]

I call it the "He had it coming" defense. Cops and cop-suckers use it all the time.

[Libertariantranslator]

That example is as internally consistent as any prohibitionist Republican or Tea Party argument. Floyd George was selling, excuse me, trafficking in individual tobacco cigarettes just before the cops piled on and hugged him. Small wonder he couldn't breathe! And the argument that passed the Harrison Act was that negroes on cocaine were certain to shred po-lice offissas unless legally gunned down with large-caliber automatic weapons. (New York Times 08FEB1914)

[Mother's Lament]

Condolences to the Otieno family.

[Azathoth!!]

Sadly, Reason's reporting on these things can no longer be trusted.

[Naime Bond]

Video has been released. Why couldn't they get a needle and sedative into his arm? Chain his leg or arm to a pipe. 8 to 12 people sitting on someone @ roughly 1 million per person = a demand for $10 million . I've seen pit bulls foaming at the mouth handled with more intelligence than this, i.e. the animal survives.

[Libertariantranslator]

Ann Baskervill said. "It's just cruel and a demonstration of power that is unlawful — I mean, it killed him." Ann got it right. Just as in physics Power is the time derivative of the ability to do Work, so political power is the time derivative of the organized capacity to inflict death. Now do you understand why the looter altruist Kleptocracy is so fanatically desperate to grab and wield political power?

[Johnathan Galt]

I'll wait to see the video before forming an opinion. Leftists always claim every whacko high on PCP with crazed strength and homicidal intent was "a victim of police brutality!" Sometimes it takes 10 people to subdue the monsters.

[Enemy of the State]

10 people to hold down one person in leg irons and hand cuffs.

No mention of exactly how large this person was...

[John Burchardt]

The updated PD statement states:
"Previously, on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at approximately 4:03 p.m., Henrico Police responded to the 2200 block of Haviland Drive, which is in the same neighborhood as the 8800 block of Fordson Road, for a reported suspicious situation. The complainant told officers he was concerned about his neighbor’s behavior. The neighbor was later identified as Mr. Otieno. The call was reclassified as a mental health problem, after speaking with Otieno and a family member. No charges were placed as a result of the March 2 call for service."
Son on Thursday at 4:03 pm, the PD knew Mr. O had a mental health problem and 19 and a half hours later, these same cops believe the crazy man is the neighborhood thief? Why did yesterday's cops leave the man alone? Surely, today's cops would have been told about Mr. O long before they claimed, "Based on their interaction with and observation of Otieno, HCPD officers placed him under an emergency custody order (ECO)." - and that ladies & gents the art of the cover-up! There's no doubt as to why Mr. O become angry over a forced medical incarceration based on the words of the 3/3 cops after his 3/2 interaction.
Moreover, the hospital never should have allowed a psychiatric patient to be transported to jail, unless they believed Mr. O was not mentally ill. The hospital should have had it's own security guards to handle overanxious & agitated patients like Mr. O.