A newly-obtained autopsy report has concluded {that a} 43-year previous Florida man’s loss of life after being violently restrained by jailers was a murder by strangulation.
On 17 January, 2021, Kevin Desir grew to become unresponsive after a wrestle with six deputies on the North Broward Bureau facility, a jail operated by the Broward county sheriff’s workplace (BSO) in south Florida. The jail particularly detains arrestees who’ve psychological and bodily disabilities, in addition to these with psychological well being issues.
During the incident, Desir was handcuffed, punched repeatedly, tasered, and pepper sprayed by officers, and misplaced consciousness after the deputies tried to strap him right into a restraint chair.
One deputy interlocked arms on Desir’s neck from behind and used “his body weight to leverage Desir back into the chair”, in response to a memo from the Broward county state lawyer’s workplace.
Desir died in the hospital on 27 January 2021, with an official autopsy carried out by the Broward county medical expert’s workplace on 28 January 2021 discovering that Desir’s trigger and method of loss of life have been undetermined.
However a personal autopsy was additionally carried out across the identical time and its conclusion was very completely different, the Guardian can now solely reveal.
In February this yr, earlier than the personal autopsy report was full, the state lawyer’s workplace introduced it was declining to prosecute any of the six officers concerned, asserting that Desir’s loss of life was justifiable.
Desir’s household has been campaigning since for a measure of justice for his or her late liked one.
They are preventing in court docket to have jail surveillance video of Kevin’s forcible restraint, whereas he gave the impression to be struggling a psychological well being episode, launched to the general public.
Kevin’s mom, 73-year-old Sercilia Desir, informed the Guardian final week: “They [need] to release the tapes, so I can see how they killed my son.”
The report from the personal autopsy requested by the household has been obtained by the Guardian as a part of a broader investigation. The report discovered that Desir died from “manual strangulation” and concluded that his loss of life was a murder after “neck and carotid arteries [were] compressed” throughout “law enforcement restraint attempt”.
The personal autopsy report took nearly 21 months to finalize after Desir’s physique was examined. BSO refused requests for entry to a number of of Desir’s medical data, in response to emails.
A household lawyer expressed skepticism.
“Any time you release half of them but you keep some [documents], that’s an indication that there’s something that they’re hiding, some back-dealing going on,” mentioned lawyer Jeremy McLymont, who’s working with the Desir household to hunt higher accountability from the authorities and safe the general public launch of the surveillance video.
The personal autopsy, carried out on 31 January 2021, by Dr Daniel Schultz of Hillsborough county, Florida, whom the Desir household employed, included a evaluation of the video footage, medical data and picked up specimens.
Of discovering that Kevin Desir’s neck was pressed for greater than three minutes, no matter different use of pressure, the autopsy report concludes: “A completely healthy individual under no prerequisite stress could succumb to that.”
Two sheriff’s deputies working on the jail who had essentially the most bodily contact with Desir through the brutal incident, Ryan Daniel and Jeremiah Howard, weren’t charged or disciplined and in addition acquired glowing inner critiques from BSO after the incident.
While Daniel and Howard have been really useful to obtain additional coaching, they solely acquired a part of such coaching and never till greater than a yr after Desir’s loss of life.
“The idea that two medical examiners could come up with two completely different causes of death is mind-blowing,” mentioned McLymont.
In mild of the brand new private-autopsy report, a Broward county state lawyer workplace spokeswoman, Paula McMahon, informed the Guardian final week that prosecutors could be “very willing to review” that autopsy’s findings.
The Broward county medical expert’s workplace, which carried out the primary, official, autopsy, didn’t touch upon the variations between the 2 findings, however mentioned that “every examination is separate and independent” from regulation enforcement and famous that Desir’s official autopsy included a evaluation of detailed data, together with “review of the complete video”.
BSO didn’t touch upon the personal autopsy findings, however informed the Guardian they stand by Howard and Daniel’s critiques and that really useful coaching was “not an indication that the employees did anything wrong”.
Mikeco Desir, Kevin’s youthful brother, mentioned: “To have somebody snatched from you like this, it’s something that will never sit well with me.”