In the American state of Virginia, seven police officers have been charged with the death of a black prisoner.
According to the news agency AFP, on March 6, 28-year-old black man Ervo Otieno was brought from a local jail in the city of Pittsburgh, Virginia, to Central Hospital, where he died three hours later.
Due to the deterioration of the mental condition of the prisoner, he was brought from the prison to the hospital for treatment.
According to the preliminary autopsy report, inmate Eru Otieno died due to lack of oxygen or suffocation.
A video of Otieno was shown to his family on Thursday, which clearly shows the cause of death.
“Although Otieno suffered from mental illness, what I saw today is heartbreaking,” the mother of prisoner Ervo Otieno said at a press conference.
He said that in the video, seven police officers assaulted a person and this process continued.
Ervo Otieno’s family has hired Ben Crimp, a prominent attorney who handles cases of police brutality against African-Americans.
Ervo Otieno was handcuffed and shackled while seven police officers tortured him for 12 minutes, Ben Kremp told the media.
Seven police officers, aged between 30 and 57, have been taken into custody on charges of second-degree murder.
Apart from them, three officials of the hospital have also been arrested on the charge of murder, whose ages are between 23 and 34 years.
Keep in mind that since the death of George Floyd, an American black citizen, due to police violence in the year 2020, there have been protests against brutality and racism not only in the United States, but also in other countries.
After this incident, there was also a movement called ‘Black Lives Matter’, under which the discriminatory treatment of African-Americans, especially by the police, was openly resisted.
