Justice For D’Vontaye Mitchell: 4 Ex-Hotel Employees Charged With Murder In Black Man’s Death

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O n June 30, 43-year-old Black man D’Vontaye Mitchell died after being subdued by reckless security guards at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Milwaukee. In July, the Milwaukee Police Department referred murder charges for four of the guards, who were fired after the incident. On Tuesday, that referral came to fruition as all four guards have been charged with murder in a crime many have compared to the murder of George Floyd .

According to the Washington Post , Milwaukee County prosecutors charged Devin Johnson-Carson, 23, Brandon Turner, 35, Herbert Williamson, 53, and Todd Erickson, 60, with murder in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The criminal complaint released Tuesday afternoon states that the chain of events that led to Mitchell’s death began after he ran across the hotel lobby “in what appears to be a frantic manner.” According to the complaint, Mitchell first ran into a hotel gift shop before heading into a women’s restroom where he reportedly attempted to lock himself inside with two women who were already there.

What surveillance footage showed, as reported by CNN :

One of the guards, who appears to be white, can be heard saying “stay down,” and “stop fighting,” as the others, who appear to be people of color, hold Mitchell down. The same guard is heard calling out to witnesses, “This is what happens when you go into the lady’s room.” It’s unclear what led up to Mitchell’s encounter with the security guards, how long it took police officers to arrive on the scene, and what Mitchell was doing at the hotel.

An investigator wrote in the complaint that Mitchell’s “behavior is erratic and confusing, and he engages in continuous physical resistance against the men,” however, the investigator acknowledged that the victim “does not instigate any violence or display any obviously aggressive or threatening behavior while on the hotel premises.”

From the Post :

While restraining him on the ground, the men “put varying amounts of force” on Mitchell’s back, shoulders and arms, according to the complaint.

Johnson-Carson could hear Mitchell saying “stop” and “why,” he later told police. Johnson-Carson, a front-desk worker at the hotel, said he also remembered Mitchell “urgently” saying something about breathing but could not recall what Mitchell said, the complaint states.

Williamson, a bellhop, told police that Mitchell was “still very aggressive” by the time they held him down and that he and the others kept telling Mitchell to calm down, the complaint states. Williamson said he thought Mitchell was still responsive as he climbed off him.

“The next thing you know, I realized he was unconscious,” investigators wrote Williamson said.

The struggle on the ground lasted about 10 minutes.

“Towards the end of that time period, [Mitchell] has stopped showing movement or resistance or other signs of life,” the complaint states.

Johnson-Carson even stated in a sworn affidavit that he “witnessed [Mitchell] take his final breaths and understood that the cause of his death was due to the extreme, unnecessary, and flagrant force administered to him, despite his clear indications of distress and lack of resistance.”

Johnson-Carson and Williamson claimed Erickson, who was a security guard at the hotel, struck Mitchell with a collapsible baton, which Erickson claimed he didn’t recall doing.

The case really does have George Floyd written all over it. In fact, the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s office ruled Mitchell’s death a homicide caused by restraint asphyxia and the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine. We can certainly count on racists and bootlickers to ignore the “restraint asphyxia” part and focus in on the part that mentions drugs in Mitchell’s system, just as they did when they wrongly insisted that ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was innocent of murdering Floyd because of the fentanyl that turned up in Floyd’s autopsy. Mitchell’s family is being represented by famed civil attorney Ben Crump , who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the “legal team and the family are “ relieved the district attorney is filing charges .”