Surveillance video shows Otieno pinned to floor before his death

DINWIDDIE, VA. >> A large group of sheriff's deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the ground until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video shows.

The footage, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he's led into a room at Central State Hospital, where he was going to be admitted March 6. For most of that duration, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to reach 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.

The death of the 28-yearold Black man has led to second-degree murder charges against seven deputies and three hospital workers and an outcry from his family, who has said he was brutally mistreated, both at the state hospital and while in law enforcement custody for several days earlier. Attorneys for many of the defendants have said they will vigorously fight the charges.

Relatives of Otieno were shown video from the hospital last week by a prosecutor, Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill, who had said that she planned to publicly release it Tuesday.

But attorneys for at least two of the defendants sought to block the video's release, arguing that it could hinder a fair trial. The Associated Press and other news outlets obtained it and other footage through a link included in a public court filing made by Baskervill.

According to timestamps included in the footage, an SUV carrying Otieno arrived at the hospital just before 4 p.m. March 6. By 4:19 p.m., a different camera shows him being brought into a room with tables and chairs. He is hauled toward a seat before eventually slumping to the floor.

An increasing number of workers put their hands on him, holding him down as he appears to start to move on the floor. Otieno's body is difficult to see at times, obscured by someone on top of him or someone standing.

“He certainly did not deserve to be smothered to death, which is what happened,” Baskervill said in court Tuesday. The workers were holding him down, “from his braids down to his toes,” she said.

DANIEL SANGJIB MIN — RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH VIA AP Caroline Ouko, mother of Irvo Otieno, holds a portrait of her son with attorney Ben Crump, left, and her older son, Leon Ochieng, at the Dinwiddie Courthouse in Dinwiddie, Va., on March 16. She said Otieno, who died in a state mental hospital March 6, was “brilliant and creative and bright.”