MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors on Tuesday charged four Milwaukee hotel employees with aiding and abetting murder in connection with the death of D'Vontaye Mitchell.
Mitchell was black. The incident has been compared to the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning over race relations, marked by multiple protests across the country.
Charged were hotel security guard Todd Erickson; front desk clerk Devin Johnson-Carson; bellhop Herbert Williamson; and security guard Brandon Turner. If found guilty, they each face up to 15 years and nine months in prison.
Reached by phone Tuesday evening, Erickson referred a request for comment to his attorney, Michael Steinle, but he did not respond to voicemail messages or email messages.
It was unclear whether any of the other three employees had attorneys. Online court records did not list one as of Tuesday evening. A phone number for Williamson had been disconnected, and The Associated Press could not immediately find phone numbers or other contact information for Johnson-Carson or Turner.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office said in a news release that arrest warrants had been issued for all four employees. The office and the Milwaukee Police Department did not immediately respond to emails seeking information about whether the employees had been arrested or had attorneys.
According to a criminal complaint, the four employees dragged Mitchell from the Hyatt Hotel on June 30 after Mitchell entered a women's restroom and held him on his stomach for eight or nine minutes. One of the employees told investigators that Mitchell was having trouble breathing and repeatedly begged for help, the complaint said.
An autopsy found that Mitchell was morbidly obese and had used cocaine and methamphetamine, the complaint said.
Hyatt surveillance footage shows Mitchell running in panic into the hotel lobby and then into the gift shop before entering the women's restroom, the complaint said. Seconds later, a woman comes out and Turner, who was free but happened to be visiting staff at the time, drags Mitchell by his shirt from the bathroom into the lobby.
The two begin to struggle and Turner punches Mitchell, knocking him to the ground. He then punches Mitchell six times and, with the help of a bystander, drags him out of the hotel. Mitchell gets up and tries to go back inside.
Williamson, Johnson-Carson and Erickson, who was on duty as a security manager, then joined in the fight. They and Turner held Mitchell down on his stomach for eight to nine minutes before police and emergency responders arrived. The video shows Mitchell repeatedly trying to break free during that time and Erickson hitting him with a baton before he finally stopped moving, the complaint said.
A video taken by a witness contains audio of Mitchell groaning and saying he was sorry. An autopsy found Mitchell was morbidly obese and had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
The county coroner ultimately determined that Mitchell died of “asphyxiation by restraint.” He may have been alive if workers had allowed him to turn onto his side, the coroner said, according to the complaint.
Erickson told investigators that Mitchell was very strong and kept resisting and trying to bite him. But the guard said he never did anything to intentionally hurt or harm Mitchell.
Turner told a detective he heard women screaming in the bathroom after Mitchell entered, and he thought Mitchell was on drugs. At one point, while the group was holding Mitchell down, he said, he pulled Mitchell's clothing off his face, according to the complaint.
Johnson-Carson told investigators that Mitchell was not in a “stable state of mind” and that he was “talking nonsense,” the complaint said.
He said he remembered Mitchell saying “stop” and “why” and something about breathing while he was being held down. He told Williamson to stop applying pressure, which he did. Johnson-Carson said Mitchell “showed clear signs of extreme distress, including gagging, labored breathing and repeated pleas for help,” according to the complaint.
The complaint concludes that the workers must have known that Mitchell was in distress. “All of these factors, DM's panting, his actions and words, his distress, demonstrate that all four defendants knew that it was 'virtually certain' that holding DM face first to the ground would worsen his physical condition,” the complaint states.
Mitchell's family members and their attorneys had previously reviewed hotel surveillance footage provided by the district attorney's office. They described Mitchell being chased into the hotel by security guards and then dragged outside, where he was beaten.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is part of a team of attorneys representing Mitchell's family, said video footage recorded by a bystander and circulating on social media showed security guards pressing their knees into Mitchell's back and neck.
Crump posted a statement on X Tuesday night calling the charges “an important step toward justice for the family of D'Vontaye Mitchell!”
Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, previously said that several employees involved in Mitchell's death have been fired.
The company released a statement Tuesday evening saying it had fully cooperated with law enforcement and would continue to cooperate with prosecutors. “Our hearts are with Mr. Mitchell's family and loved ones as this matter moves forward,” the statement said.
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Kathleen Foody, an Associated Press editor in Chicago, contributed to this report.
