Family members and community residents in Raleigh, North Carolina, are in shock after police were captured on body camera video repeatedly using a Taser on Darryl Williams, a Black man, who died shortly after being arrested in January. During the encounter, the 32-year-old warned officers he had heart problems.
Who was Darryl Williams?
Friends and family members described Williams as a kind and non-violent person.
Sonya Williams, his mother, told the Washington Post Williams was “a loving person who got along with everybody.”
The 32-year-old, nicknamed “Boo Boo” to those close to him, was an assistant manager at a Sonic restaurant.
“Darryl was not violent at all. He was not a violent person,” his friend Christopher Strickland told CBS 17.
Why was Darryl Williams arrested?
Police encountered Williams during a ‘proactive patrol’ in the early morning hours of 17 January.
Officers said they saw Williams with an open container of alcohol and marijuana in his car and asked him to step outside.
During a search of his person, officers say they then found a dollar bill containing white powder.
Body camera footage released by local authorities shows officers then moving to arrest Williams, who appears unsure of why he’s being taken into custody.
"I’m not doing nothing though," Williams says in the video. "What’s going on, sir?"
Over the course of the encounter, Williams begins to struggle with officers and appears to attempt to flee, as officers warn he will be tased.
After being tased once, Williams falls onto concrete and is tased again, and can be heard telling officers, “I got heart problems, bro, please.”
He is then tased a third time and put in handcuffs.
The edited body camera footage shows officers check Williams’s vitals and fail to find a pulse. The 32-year-old died at nearby hospital later that morning.
Have any officers been punished in the death of Darryl Williams?
Six officers are on administrative leave following the January arrest, which comes after a string of high-profile officer-involved killings in Atlanta and Memphis.
"Like everyone else, I am seeing this video for the first time. Anytime we have a loss of life, it’s upsetting and disturbing. The City of Raleigh is committed to provide a safe and healthy community,” Mary-Ann Baldwin, the mayor of Raleigh, said in a statement following the death. “This is under investigation by the SBI [State Bureau of Investigation] and there is also an internal investigation taking place within the Raleigh Police and they, along with the district attorney, will determine the next steps."
The Raleigh City Council voted last week on a committee to look into community concerns about police, and local activsts are demanding justice.
“It’s heartbreaking to think about any person being electrocuted to death for nothing. In a parking lot, alone, begging, screaming and pleading for mercy that the Raleigh Police Department could not and would not offer him. They need to be held accountable for that,” Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, a criminal justice advocacy organisation, told CNN.
The group has called for the six officers involved in the incident to be fired and prosecuted.
