Five officers indicted for 2019 death of man following music festival in Hampton
HAMPTON, Ga. - A grand jury has indicted five police officers in the death of a 24-year-old man found naked walking down a Georgia street from a music festival in Sept. 2019.
Robert Butera and Quinton Phillips, officers with the Henry County Police Department, and Mason Lewis, Marcus Stroud, and Gregory Bowlden, officers with the Hampton Police Department, were all charged with one count of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, and one count of violation of oath of office.
Fernando Octavio Rodriguez, 24, died from asphyxiation from being held to the ground while being handcuffed and shackled by officers, according to the Henry County District Attorney's Office.
According to a lawsuit filed by the man's parents earlier this year, Rodriguez was walking home after attending the Imagine Festival, an electronic music event held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton shortly after 10 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2019. Police had received a 911 call of an unclothed man.
A police body camera video provided by Rodriguez’s parents’ lawyers shows Rodriguez walking down the middle of a street naked as an officer shouts at him to get on the ground at least 10 times, The Associated Press reported. Rodriguez turns around twice but keeps walking. He yells something at the officers, but it’s bleeped out on the video provided by the lawyers.
The officer then yells, "I’m gonna tase you," and fires his stun gun, causing Rodriguez to fall to the ground.
Over the next 10 minutes officers stunned him at least 15 times and "pinned Fernando to the ground by kneeling and standing on Fernando’s back, neck, head, arms, and legs, thereby depriving Fernando of oxygen," the lawsuit states.
After that, the officers are heard repeatedly telling him to roll over onto his stomach so they can help him and also threatening to stun him again. One tries to turn him over and calls him a "sweaty little hog." Rodriguez is heard yelling whenever he’s stunned and is seen trying to sit up and scooting away from the officers while lying on his back.
About six minutes after Rodriguez was first shot with a stun gun, the officers roll him over and handcuff him. They then pin him down with their feet and knees on different parts of his body and push his face into the road.
About 15 minutes after Rodriguez was first stunned, one of the officers says his pulse rate is "through the roof" and another officer asks Rodriguez if he’s still breathing.
An officer says twice, "He’s quit breathing." Another says, "Are you serious?"
Even after they were aware that he was not breathing, they didn’t stop to render aid as they should have, said Jess Johnson, a lawyer for Rodriguez’s parents.
Throughout the encounter, the officers are heard speculating that Rodriguez is on drugs. Johnson said he has not seen a toxicology report but he believes Rodriguez was under the influence of something and needed medical attention.
Rodriguez was unresponsive when paramedics arrived and he died at a hospital just over 48 hours later. A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by "asphyxia due to physical restraint in prone position with compression of chest" and said his injuries occurred during "physical altercation with law enforcement," the lawsuit states.
After the paramedics arrive, one asks, "Has he got a good chest rise?" One of the officers responds, "I have no idea, man. We got him to this point and we just didn’t touch him no more."
Paramedics later reported Rodriguez was "unresponsive, not breathing and pulseless" when they arrived, the lawsuit says. They put him on a stretcher and were able to revive him. But he died early on Sept. 23, 2019, at Grady Memorial Hospital, where doctors said he was suffering from respiratory failure, renal failure, anoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest and acute blood loss anemia, the lawsuit says.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to take over the case and a spokeswoman said the investigative file was submitted to the Henry County District Attorney in January 2020.
No word on the officers' employment status or if they have surrendered on those charges.
The civil lawsuit is still pending.
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The Associated Pres contributed to this article