Muhammad Muhaymin Jr, who died in 2017 after being held down by Phoenix officers, is seen screaming ‘I can’t breathe’ in video
The family of Muhammad Muhaymin Jr, an unarmed black Muslim man who died in police custody in 2017, has issued a renewed plea for justice as
video footage was released showing him screaming “I can’t breathe” and calling “Please Allah” in the minutes before he died.
The 43-year-old died after being held down by at least four Phoenix police officers – one of whom put their knee on his neck – for nearly eight minutes as he cried out in pain.
The incident started after Muhaymin, who was homeless at the time and suffered from mental illness, tried to bring his chihuahua, a service dog, into a public bathroom at a community centre in Maricopa county in Arizona and an employee called 911. Minutes later, he was dead.
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None of the officers have faced any disciplinary measures or been charged and they all still work for Phoenix police.
His sister Mussalina Muhaymin, 48, told the Guardian of her family’s struggle knowing that the officers have not been held accountable.
She said: “They haven’t had to answer to any of their actions, there were zero consequences. It’s impacted our family very much. As individuals we all have our different ways that we deal with it but the issue is that here it is and we continue to deal with it, we can’t heal from it.”
Mussalini Muhaymin, who works at a community health centre and lives in Phoenix, added: “They should be fired from their job, lose any opportunity to go and work for another police department, ultimately face legal consequences with an opportunity to be prosecuted and convicted for murder, because that’s what it was.”
An internal investigation by Phoenix police found officers “did not commit any act that warrants criminal prosecution”,
CNN reported. The Maricopa county medical examiner said the death was a homicide – listing the primary cause of death to be cardiac arrest aggravated by “coronary artery disease, psychiatric disease, acute methamphetamine intoxication and physical exertion during law enforcement subdual”.
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report by Dr Bennet Omalu, the family’s expert witness, found he died from “asphyxiation due to compression of his trunk and body” and that “if Muhammad did not encounter the police on Jan. 4, 2017, he would not have died”.
The family is in the process of a civil lawsuit for which they expect to have a trial date in early spring. Their lawyer, David Chami, managing partner of litigation at Price Law Group, called for the investigation to be reopened.
He said: “If the investigation was reopened based on what we’ve now uncovered in our civil lawsuit, we do believe that some of the officers, not all of them, but that some of the officers would warrant criminal prosecution.”
Muhaymin hopes that in light of the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, the case will be given renewed attention.
She said Floyd’s death brought out a combination of emotions. “From anger to extreme sadness, to know that these men and women have experienced these behaviors from an organisation that’s vowed to protect and serve your community.”
Police tried to arrest her brother after discovering a warrant on his record while he was in the bathroom for not appearing in court for a charge relating to possession of a marijuana pipe after he was stopped for jaywalking in 2016.
Harrowing body-camera
footage, released in full for the first time, captures the physical and verbal abuse that Muhaymin underwent in the last moments of his life.
Police take him outside the community centre where Muhaymin sees his dog and cries out “my child”. They bring him to the car park, next to a police car, where Muhaymin asks: “Why are you doing this?”
They appear to pin him against the car then bring him to the ground where he screams out and says: “I cannot believe this.” An officer replies: “Fucking relax, dumbass.” One of the officers is heard asking: “Where is the Taser?”
His pleas for help, pained cries and request to “stop” are repeatedly met with abusive language including “dumbass” and “motherfucker” while heavily panting officers placed their weight on his neck, back, arms and legs.
He says several times that he “can’t breathe”. When he cries “Please Allah”, an officer responds: “Allah? He’s not going to help you right now.”
His sister said: “It needs to be brought to the attention of the public that Muhammad was pretty much begging for his life. And that his death, it was slow. And he experienced the pain of everything that was happening to him.”
She described her brother – who had two children and three sisters – as “gentle and loving with us. He was a spiritual person, he was fun, he liked to joke, he had a lot of personality, and because of that a lot of people really liked him.”
She said for his daughter it was especially tough. “We’re adults, we almost can process it a little better, but to know the experience that a child will have from not having their father. As a daughter and a father that’s heartbreaking to see that.”
Civil rights advocates released the footage on Thursday as they called on Phoenix’s mayor, Kate Gallego, and the Maricopa county attorney, Allister Adel, to fire, charge and arrest the officers responsible for his death and appoint a special criminal prosecutor.
A letter, arranged by the organising collective Poder in Action and national civil rights group Muslim Advocates and signed by 61 organisations, said: “Muhaymin was a family man, a Black man, a Muslim man and a disabled man. The footage and subsequent news reporting shows officers either mocked or disregarded all of these aspects of his identity before they killed him.”
Petitions by Muslim.co, the Grassroots Law Project and Muslim Advocates has attracted more than 73,000 signatures and on Wednesday 26 August there will be a protest outside Phoenix city hall.
Jennifer Liewer, a spokeswoman for Maricopa county attorney’s office, said the county attorney does not have authority to fire a member of law enforcement and that the decision over the death of Muhaymin was made by Adel’s predecessor, Bill Montgomery.
But, she added: “Should a law enforcement agency submit the case to our office for a second review, we would then review any new facts and evidence and determine if criminal charges are warranted.”
The Guardian has contacted Phoenix police, the mayor’s office and the city of Phoenix for comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...aymin-jr-death-phoenix-police-custody-footage
