Grand Jury Indicts 10 Individuals Over Death Of Black Virginia Man Irvo Otieno #IrvoOtieno
Written by djfrosty on March 21, 2023
Irvo Otieno, who came to the United States at the age of four with his family from Kenya, died while in the custody of Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County in Virginia. Video footage shared with a grand jury showed seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and three hospital employees piling atop Otieno for 12 minutes before he stopped moving.
According to the Associated Press, Irvo Otieno crossed paths with Henrico police on March 2, who then delivered him to Parham Doctors Hospital per an emergency mental health order. The police report stated that Otieno became aggressive with the officers upon arrival at Parham and moved him to the Henrico County Jail for holding.
On March 6, Otieno was moved to Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, just southwest of Petersburg, Va. It was there that Otieno succumbed to being smothered by the deputies and hospital staff while shackled with leg irons and handcuffed.
In a hearing that was held earlier in March, Dinwiddie Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill said, “In the video at Central State you see at least a knee inflicted on the body, which is — we’ve seen this before as a country. He was held down on the ground, pinned on the ground for 12 minutes by all seven of our defendants charged here.”
The outlet adds that two of the 10 indicted attempted to have their legal team stop the entering of the security footage from the hospital into evidence but were unsuccessful as the grand jury witnessed the video earlier on Tuesday (March 20).
Irvo Otieno was 28 at the time of his death.
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Photo: CNN