Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace/ YouTube
Seven Harris County Jail workers have been reassigned and are restricted from having contact with inmates after a person died throughout a battle that ensued as he was leaving the jail earlier this month, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez stated.
Safety and physique digicam video footage that was launched by the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace on Friday reveals the moments earlier than 32-year-old Alexis Cardenas was restrained by a number of detention officers after he refused to exit the jail.
The video footage reveals when detention officers escorted Cardenas to the exit door. Cardenas is seen backing away from the door and in direction of a nook of the room, placing his arms up. He lies on the bottom, and one officer begins to tug him in direction of the exit.
An officer might be seen deploying a taser at Cardenas at shut vary earlier than a number of officers tried to restrain him. He’s seen on safety video strolling again right into a safe space of the jail, the place extra officers try to pin him to the bottom. An officer at one level might be seen putting Cardenas’ face together with his fist.
At the least 4 officers kneeled whereas persevering with to pin Cardenas to the bottom. Twelve different officers at one level entered the room and surrounded Cardenas after he was handcuffed and his face was nonetheless held to the ground, the video reveals. 5 minutes after the sheriff’s workplace wrote that officers gained management over the person, they seen he turned unresponsive.
Talking at a press convention on Friday afternoon, Gonzalez couldn’t say whether or not or not the officers adopted protocols through the battle. An officer administered CPR to Cardenas within the jail earlier than he was transported to St. Joseph Hospital and pronounced useless.
Cardenas was arrested in a southwest Houston car parking zone two days earlier than he died by Houston cops for allegedly failing to look in courtroom for a decade-old visitors quotation.
RELATED: The newest inmate to die on the Harris County Jail was arrested over a 2014 visitors quotation
Paperwork supplied to Houston Public Media present {that a} warrant was issued for his arrest on Jan. 12, 2015, after he failed to look in courtroom for a visitors violation cost. The violation occurred when he allegedly didn’t yield proper of method at an intersection whereas making a left flip in 2014. That led to an accident with one other car, paperwork present.
An arrest doc reveals he was arrested by a Houston Police Division officer on three municipal violations on July 6 this yr. He claimed he was in good well being on the time of the arrest, based on the doc.
Sooner or later after his arrest, he was ordered to look in courtroom for not having a sound driver’s license, failing to ascertain monetary accountability and failing to yield right-of-way. All of the violations had been over a decade previous. The costs had been dismissed on July 7 after the officer was not current in courtroom.
He was launched from the downtown Houston jail within the early morning hours of July 8, when the altercation between Cardenas and officers started. Gonzalez didn’t say whether or not he was struggling from a psychological well being disaster through the altercation or on the time he was first arrested by Houston police. He known as the incident distinctive.
“In 9 years that I’ve been sheriff right here, I’ve by no means had a state of affairs the place somebody had already exited, or was on the verge of actually exiting once they needed to return again in for no matter cause,” he stated.
Through the reserving course of within the Harris County Jail, a medical screening kind is stuffed out to find out if an individual is affected by psychological or bodily illnesses earlier than they’re booked into the jail. The screening kind, which covers 38 questions, asks if an individual is listening to noises that different folks don’t appear to listen to, or if they’re frightened that somebody may harm or kill them. Gonzalez stated the screening didn’t present any main bodily or psychological well being points.
Cardenas’ household nonetheless has stated he was affected by a psychological well being disaster on the time that police arrested him. In an announcement on Friday, they stated the screening course of failed him throughout consumption.
At one level through the roughly 30 hours that Cardenas was imprisoned, he made a go to to one of many clinics within the jail. Gonzalez didn’t say why he visited the clinic.
Melissa Cardenas, his cousin, has stated her household was left at the hours of darkness in regards to the circumstances surrounding his dying. She stated he had initially approached a police officer the day he was arrested in worry for his life.
Lee Thweatt, an legal professional representing his household, stated on Friday that the video depicts “the mindless taking of Alexis’s life by the hands of Harris County Jail officers.”
“It needs to be vigorously investigated by each the Texas Rangers and the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace, and the accountable jail officers needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the legislation, disadvantaged of their peace officer licenses, and prosecuted,” Thweatt stated.
Applications geared toward restoring competency and increasing psychological well being assets for jail inmates going through low stage crimes have lengthy been championed by Harris County commissioners. Earlier this yr, officers with the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace stated that greater than 300 folks detained for low-level offenses have been diverted away from incarceration and into psychological well being remedy packages.
About 80 p.c of inmates within the Harris County Jail endure from a psychological well being dysfunction, based on latest knowledge from the workplace.
