Body-cam footage shows indicted ex-police officers laughing at man who died in custody

JACKSON, Miss. -- Three former police officers who were indicted by a Mississippi grand jury joked around about a man who died in their custody, with one of them questioning whether to call an ambulance for the man immediately, body-camera footage shows.

Officials in the state capital of Jackson announced Wednesday that a Mississippi grand jury had indicted two former police officers on murder charges and another ex-officer on a manslaughter charge in the death of a Black man seen on video being pinned down and repeatedly shocked with stun guns during a New Year's Eve arrest. The city released hours of body-camera footage detailing the encounter, which The Associated Press reviewed.

The officers had tackled Keith Murriel while arresting him for allegedly trespassing at a hotel after they asked him to leave the building's parking lot. The footage showed then-officers Avery Willis, Kenya McCarty and James Land struggling to handcuff Murriel as he was stunned numerous times for over 10 minutes.

Willis and McCarty are Black, and Land is white, according to Melissa Faith Payne, a city spokeswoman.

After officers handcuffed Murriel, they placed him horizontally in the back of a patrol car. Seventeen minutes of the hourlong body-camera footage show officers trying to place Murriel inside the vehicle. The remaining 43 minutes of the footage does not show paramedics arriving or the officers checking on Murriel to see whether he needed immediate medical aid. The footage is broken up into multiple clips, and it is unclear whether officers attended to Murriel off camera.

What is clear is that during that 43-minute period, the officers joked around about the encounter.

"I hope (he) is asleep. Because if he's asleep, it'll be a good ride," Willis is heard saying on camera, using a racial slur to refer to Murriel. "It was funny seeing (his) feet in the air. ... In the beginning, it was funny. After a while it got annoying."

The clip from Willis' body camera ends after one hour. Paramedics arrived 12 minutes into the next clip from Willis' body camera. When a paramedic opened the back door of the patrol vehicle, he noticed Murriel wasn't breathing.

McCarty then told one of the paramedics Murriel was "on something." The Jackson Police Department has not indicated whether any narcotics were detected in Murriel's toxicology report.

Paramedics performed CPR before transporting Murriel to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. On Willis' body-camera footage, he can be heard telling someone Murriel choked on his own vomit.

Daryl Washington, an attorney for Murriel's family, said the language and tactics used by the officers justified their indictment.

"It makes you wonder how these officers act when they are not captured on their own bodycam," Washington said. "But these officers knew that their bodycams were on, and they felt very comfortable because they believed nothing would happen to them. Fortunately, Keith's family is not going to allow this to be swept under the rug like a lot of these cases usually are."

Murriel's family has filed a civil lawsuit against the officers. Washington said city officials did not give them enough time to view the footage before it was released to the public. Some family members saw the footage for the first time in news reports.

"We expected to at least have a couple of days or so to prepare ourselves," he said.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said at Wednesday's news conference the city was now releasing body-camera footage because a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation probe of the death had been completed. The officers -- all ex-members of the Jackson Police Department -- were indicted May 12.

All three officers were placed on administrative leave after the incident. McCarty was fired in February, and Willis and Land in April.

Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones told WJTV-TV that Land is out of jail on a $75,000 bond, and McCarty is out on a $150,000 bond. The sheriff Wednesday said Willis had not been arrested and a spokesperson for the department did not respond to a phone message Thursday inquiring whether he was in custody.

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Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mikergoldberg.