(2 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Indianapolis – 02 December 2024
1. Zoom in of Adam Ahmad and Steven Sanchez sitting in court
2. Various of the chief trial deputy for the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office Daniel Cicchini speaking in court
3. Med of Ahmad and Sanchez sitting in court
4. Ahmad and Sanchez’s attorney Mason Riley speaking in court
5. Pan right, Riley and Ahmad leaving the courtroom
STORYLINE:
Two Indianapolis police officers charged in the death of a Black man — who was shocked with a Taser during a mental health crisis — acted “recklessly" by restraining him face down longer than necessary, a prosecutor said during opening statements Monday.
Officers Adam Ahmad and Steven Sanchez were indicted by a grand jury in April 2023 in Herman Whitfield III’s 2022 death. They are being tried together as co-defendants for what’s expected to be a five-day trial.
Both men face one felony count each of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, battery resulting in serious bodily injury and battery resulting in moderate injury, and one misdemeanor battery charge.
Ahmad, 32, and Sanchez, 35, were indicted after Whitfield’s family had spent nearly a year demanding that police release full body camera videos of his encounter with officers and called for the firing of up to six officers. Both officers remain on administrative duty with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Whitfield’s parents had called 911 on April 25, 2022, and reported that their 39-year-old son, a gifted pianist, was in the throes of a mental health crisis at the family’s Indianapolis home.
The videos of the police response to the Whitfield home were released in January 2023 and document Whitfield’s final moments alive during a chaotic encounter with police.
Responding officers found Whitfield naked and pacing inside the home. Body camera videos show officers trying to convince Whitfield to put on clothing so he could be taken to a hospital. But Whitfield did not dress, and he avoided contact with the officers, moving from room to room.
Whitfield is eventually seen running past a dining room table before Sanchez shocks him with a Taser and Whitfield falls to the floor, toppling furniture. Sanchez, Ahmad and other officers are seen holding a struggling Whitfield face down on the floor while they work to handcuff him.
Whitfield can be heard saying “can’t breathe” a few times and exclaiming before he eventually falls silent. When officers rolled the handcuffed Whitfield over, he was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
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