Leon Davis, a 27-year-old Black man, walked into a hospital in the state of Washington seeking treatment for alcohol withdrawal earlier this year.
But he died two days later after police held him face down on the floor for at least 25 minutes after he tried leaving the hospital.
Earlier this week, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Federal Way, its police department, and various entities related to St. Francis Hospital.
The incident occurred on March 14, and officers captured the disturbing encounter on bodycam footage that the Federal Way Police Department refused to release for months.
“He died on a hospital floor yards away from the Progressive Care Unit, where doctors and nurses are trained to respond to exactly this kind of emergency,” said attorney Simeon Osborn in a statement to the media.
“There is no plausible reason for the police or prosecutors to deny the public access to these videos for more than seven months,” Osborn added. “Withholding the video doesn’t change what happened to Leon. It just breeds distrust.”
Mom Left Furious in Viral Video After Diner Employee Dumps Daughter’s Stuffed Animals in Trash
The video shows police arriving at the hospital, where security guards were holding Davis face down on the floor.
“His nose and mouth were bloodied; Federal Way Police Department officers handcuffed him behind his back and forced an ill-fitting spit hood over his face while doctors filled him with additional sedative tranquilizers,” the claim states.
“As a result, he died on the hallway floor of St. Francis Hospital.”
The King County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide, listing the cause as “cardiac arrest, prolonged restraint in prone position in setting of alcohol withdrawal syndrome.”
Prosecutors were still reviewing the case as of Oct. 29 and had not announced a charging decision.
According to the claim, Davis voluntarily checked into the hospital on March 12 for alcohol withdrawal treatment, where doctors gave him medications that left him confused, dizzy and paranoid.
Two days later, Davis tried to exercise his right to leave the hospital, but security guards tackled him, beat him and physically restrained him on the floor, according to the claim.
Police said they were responding to a report of a “disorderly patient” who had assaulted staff. The police bodycam footage does not show the initial confrontation with security.
The video shows the cops handcuffing his hands behind his back with three sets of handcuffs while he lies face down on the hospital hallway floor.
Davis grunts and breathes heavily at several points in the recording, but he does not appear to physically resist the guards.
The cops continued restraining him, placing a spit hood over his head, keeping him face down. Around 18 minutes into the footage, hospital staff administered an injection, telling officers it would take five to 10 minutes to work.
The cops eventually turn him onto his back and question whether he is breathing before removing his handcuffs as medical personnel begin CPR.
“The defendants violated their medical training, police training, use-of-force training, agency policies, and simple common sense when they pinned an overweight, exhausted, sedated, handcuffed, and bleeding man, face down, to the ground for nearly a half-hour,” Roger Rogoff, another attorney representing the family, said in their press release.
The department placed the officers on administrative leave after the incident but later allowed them to return to duty.
The lawsuit challenges how police and hospital staff handled the incident, while prosecutors continue to review whether to file criminal charges.
The lawsuit accuses hospital staff and Federal Way police of causing Davis’ death by keeping him handcuffed and face down for approximately 25 to 30 minutes, administering additional sedatives, and ignoring his pleas that he could not breathe.
It also accuses hospital employees of unlawfully preventing him from leaving the hospital and asserts that racial and disability bias contributed to their treatment of him.
His estate seeks unspecified damages for claims including wrongful death, medical malpractice, negligence, battery, unlawful imprisonment, and discrimination.
“Because of Mr. Davis’s weight and skin color, their insufficient training in racial bias, disability discrimination, and de-escalation, and their failure to recognize their own biases, hospital staff and security personnel interpreted his desire to leave and his resistance to them stopping him, as a threat,” the claim states.
His sister, Shannice Johnson, said she cried for hours after watching the video.
“No one should have to watch someone they love slowly die while doctors and nurses stand by,” she said in the press release issued by the family attorney’s office.