Video After The Jump
In the minutes before Harold Easter appears to go unconscious, alone in a police interview room, he begins to speak haltingly.
“You think I’m gonna die, but I’m not,” he says in garbled tones.
Easter grips the edge of a table. A few minutes later he slumps over the table, then suddenly moves upward and falls onto the floor. He hits a chair on his way down and starts having a seizure.
By the time police discover him, he has been on the floor for eight minutes.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police on Thursday released 17 video clips totaling 6 hours, 28 minutes of footage from body and surveillance cameras that detail Easter’s arrest after a traffic stop on Jan. 23, him being left alone in the interview room at the CMPD Metro station, and medics working on him after he collapses.
The 41-year-old Easter was taken to a hospital, where he died three days later.
The Observer reported this week that the four CMPD officers and a sergeant involved have resigned after being recommended for termination by Police Chief Johnny Jennings for not following policy of seeking medical assistance for Easter, who had ingested crack cocaine at the arrest scene.
Officers knew Easter put drugs in his mouth, which Easter admitted to during his arrest, the videos and documents released by CMPD revealed. The officers and sergeant did not follow a long-standing CMPD policy that states anyone suspected of ingesting drugs must be evaluated by Medic before being taken to jail, The Observer has reported.
The officers involved are Brentley Vinson, Michael Benfield, Michael Joseph and Shon Sheffield, and the sergeant was Nicolas Vincent. They had been on administrative leave since January.
Source: Charlotte Observer
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