INDIANAPOLIS — People rallied on Monument Circle Monday, demanding the termination of police officers involved in the death of Herman Whitfield III.
"Fire every officer. We're not waiting on the prosecutor's office. We're not waiting on that process," said Dea Lott, who coordinated the rally.
Supporters stood and marched in the rain for 90 minutes to bring attention to the case of a Black man who was tased and left handcuffed on his stomach for several minutes. The rally comes after Whitfield's family released all of the police bodycam video from last April's incident when police were called to a home for a "mental health crisis."
IMPD previously released an edited and narrated video of the incident. But the Whitfield family won their federal lawsuit to obtain all the video. And despite the disturbing nature of watching their son die in the video, they want the public to know what happened.
"My son is having a psychosis," Herman Whitfield Jr. said on the video. "You guys should have brought an ambulance and bring in one of those things to give him a shot or something."
When police arrived, Herman Whitfield III's parents were already concerned that an ambulance was not responding to his son's mental health crisis.
"They're not going to kill him, are they?" said Whitfield's mother, Gladys.
"I'm sorry, what?" responded a female officer.
"Because he's..." Whitfield said.
"We're just talking to him ma'am," the officer replied.
"I know. But you're calling somebody else. I'm just really concerned," Whitfield said.
"Well, wait. We're just talking to him. Nobody's got anything out that would cause him harm. OK?" the officer said.
"OK," Whitfield replied.
Whitfield was naked and did not respond to police or his parents' request to get dressed to go to the hospital. The video shows Whitfield retreating from officers multiple times. Even as an officer deploys his taser, Whitfield turned to avoid him.
"Cannot breathe. I can't breathe," Herman Whitfield III said in the video.
He seems to yell "I can't breathe" multiple times while face down as officers handcuff him behind his back.
"My mind has been racing constantly with these images of my son suffering. They acted maliciously, sadistically, and brutally in his murder," Whitfield's father said Monday.
From the time Whitfield made his last sound, three minutes pass before paramedics arrive. No officers appear to check on the health of Whitfield, face down and silent.
Five-and-a-half minutes pass before CPR is performed.
"It replays every day in my sleep, when I get up in the morning, all through the day, and when I lay down at night. I live there where it happened," Gladys Whitfield said.
After an autopsy, the coroner ruled Whitfield's death a homicide caused by cardiopulmonary arrest in the setting of police subduing him with a prone restraint just after he was tased. The report lists morbid obesity and hypertensive cardiovascular disease as contributing conditions.
The six officers who were in the home remain on administrative duty. The prosecutor has not announced a decision on possible criminal charges.