Cuffed man’s death homicide

Autopsy shows police restraint contributed to cardiac arrest

DENVER — The death of a man who was handcuffed after a mental health team was called and found him walking out into traffic last year has been ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by lawyers for his family.

According to the report, Kevin Dizmang, 63, died on Nov. 22 as the result of cardiac arrest that occurred while he was being restrained and while he was acutely intoxicated by methamphetamine and suffering from health problems such as obesity and asthma.

The Jan. 6 autopsy report concluded that the manner of Dizmang’s death in Colorado Springs was determined to be a homicide because of “the contribution of physical restraint to the cause of death.”

It is the latest incident in the U.S. that raises questions about how police handle encounters with people experiencing mental health crises.

Lawyers representing Dizmang’s family also released body camera footage in which an officer is repeatedly heard ordering Dizmang to put his hands behind his back while in the street, as others try to stop cars, and resisting attempts by the officer to put handcuffs on him. He then is taken to the ground with the help of a person in a red jacket — identified by family lawyer Harry Daniels as the team’s paramedic.

It’s hard to see what is happening but, with the person in red holding his arm around the upper part of Dizmang’s body as he lies face down, Dizmang soon stops moving. After he is turned face up, others call on Dizmang to talk to them but there is no response.

Daniels said no one made any effort to try to revive Dizmang at that point, and he claimed the officer treatedthe call like a crime scene, instead of a mental health crisis.

“The people who came to help him are the people who ended up killing him,” said Daniels, who expects to file a lawsuit over Dizmang’s death.

The Colorado Springs Police Department said the case was investigated and turned over to the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office for review. A district attorney’s office spokesman said the district attorney found the actions of the officer and the paramedic were justified and no criminal charges would be filed.

Initial information from the police department said it dispatched a Community Response Team, comprised of a police officer, a paramedic and a mental health clinician to a call about a man experiencing a “mental health episode” at a home and he was found in a roadway.

The officer tried to escort the man out of the street, a struggle ensued and the paramedic helped the officer, it said. The man was placed in handcuffs and become unresponsive, it said. The officer and paramedic were placed on paid administrative leave.