精神科病院で黒人男性が窒息死、警官らが押さえ付ける映像公開　米

【ワシントンＤ．Ｃ．（米国）ＡＦＰ＝時事】米バージニア州で今月上旬、精神科病院で黒人男性が警官と病院職員に体を押さえ付けられて死亡した事件が起こった。米紙ワシントン・ポストは２１日、病院の監視カメラの映像の一部を公開した。（写真は米バージニア州の病院で死亡したアーボ・オティエノさん。ベン・クランプ法律事務所提供）
　死亡したのはアーボ・オティエノさん（２８）さん。映像は６日に撮影されたもので全２７分。ワシントン・ポストがうち９分間を抜粋した。
　オティエノさんはバージニア州リッチモンド近郊の勾留施設から、ピーターズバーグ近郊の州立病院に移送されてきたところだった。
　オティエノさんは手錠と足かせを着けられていた。上半身裸で、はだしのまま、７人の警官に病院の一室に連れ込まれた。抵抗している様子はなかったが、床に寝かされ、警官１人が馬乗りになった。別の警官が膝で頭か首を押さえ付けてていたとみられる。
　室内には病院職員が１０人おり、警察に協力していた職員もいた。そのうちにオティエノさんがぐったりしたため、警官や職員が蘇生を試みたものの、死亡した。
　ディンウィディー郡の検察は、検視の結果、「身体拘束中」に窒息したのが死因だと発表した。
　警官７人と病院職員３人が第２級殺人罪で起訴されている。うち大半がアフリカ系米国人。
　オティエノさんは事件の３日前から、精神衛生上の危機を理由に拘束されていた。
　母親は先週、オティエノさんは精神疾患だったとし、「息子は犬よりひどい扱いを受けた」「窒息死させられた」と非難した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/03/22-17:26）

Disturbing video footage released Tuesday shows the death of a 28-year-old Black man as he was being admitted to a US mental hospital, where he was forcibly restrained by as many as 10 police officers and hospital security guards.
Irvo Otieno's March 6 death in Virginia has already drawn murder charges against the officers and guards involved, thrusting the spotlight back on US law enforcement brutality and the treatment of mental health patients in particular.
Otieno was already in handcuffs and leg restraints when police brought him from the Henrico County jail near Richmond, Virginia, to Central State Hospital in nearby Petersburg.
The Washington Post published a nine-minute video, drawn from 27 minutes of hospital surveillance footage of the incident.
The edited clip shows the seven officers bringing the shirtless and shoeless Otieno into a room at the hospital on March 6.
In the video he does not appear to struggle.
They place him on the floor and then hold him down at length, the purpose unclear, with one officer laying on him and another apparently pressing his knee to Otieno's head or neck, while up to 10 hospital workers watch, some sometimes helping out.
Eventually he goes limp and efforts by police and hospital workers to resuscitate him proved fruitless.
Seven police officers and three hospital workers, most of whom were also African American, were charged with second-degree murder in the case.
Otieno was taken by police into custody three days earlier after experiencing a mental health crisis.
Held for three days in the local jail, he was then transferred to the Central State Hospital, where he died.
According to preliminary autopsy results, he died of asphyxiation while being physically restrained, Dinwiddie County District Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said in a statement.
Last week his mother Caroline Ouko said he was going through mental illness.
My son was treated like a dog, worse than a dog. I saw it with my own eyes... they smothered my baby, she said.
Ben Crump, a nationally-known attorney who has represented the families of a number of African Americans killed or injured in police custody, has been retained by Otieno's family.
Crump has drawn a parallel between Otieno's case and the murder of George Floyd, a Black man whose videotaped death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer shocked the world in 2020, triggering a mass mobilization against racism and police brutality.