Columbus (GA) Settles Suit. 3 Large White Cops Sat on a Handcuffed Latino Man w/a Knee in His Back for Over 6 Minutes. He Said 'I Can't Breathe' at Least 13X Before Cops Killed Him

From [HERE] A local government in Georgia agreed Tuesday to pay $500,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a Hector Arreola an unarmed, handcuffed Latino man who was killed by police officers 2017.

Columbus Council members met in closed session and approved the settlement with the family of Hector Arreola, news outlets reported.

“Council decided that it was in the best interest of everyone involved, to include the Arreola family, the law enforcement personnel involved, the citizens of Columbus, Georgia,” Mayor Skip Henderson told WRBL-TV after the vote. “It gives us an opportunity, maybe to begin some healing on this.”

Council member Walker Garrett, an attorney who made the motion to settle the suit, said the settlement is unrelated to any criminal case that a district attorney might pursue against the officers.

“We think that the judge had made a pretty emphatic statement about the fact that there was precious little evidence to warrant a murder charge in this instance,” Garrett said. “We are focused now on the civil aspect, and it allows the family to begin the healing process.”

According to the complaint:

At 3:40 A.M. on January 9, 2017, Hector Arreola (Arreola) contacted the Columbus Police Department via their 911 system for assistance. At that time, Arreola was at the Efficiency Lodge Hotel in Muscogee County, Georgia.

Officer Brian Dudley, 1-Adam 25, and Officer Michael Aguilar, 1-Adam 28, were sent to 760 Moss Drive, Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia, to check on the welfare of Concepcion Arreola.

Officers Dudley and Aguilar knocked on Concepcion Arreola’s door, waking her. Concepcion Arreola said she was fine and the officers left.

Arreola placed another call to Columbus 911 at 4:55 A.M., on January 9, 2017, explaining he left his hotel room earlier before the police arrived because he needed to check on his mother. Arreola asked Columbus 911 dispatch to send police officers back to 760 Moss Drive, Columbus, Georgia, to check on his mother again.

Officers Dudley and Aguilar went back to 760 Moss Drive to meet with Arreola. Officers Dudley, Aguilar, and Evrard each had a recording device (body cam) attached to their body which captured audio and video of the events on January 9, 2017, at 760 Moss Drive, 747 Moss Drive, and some portion of the subsequent events relevant hereto. All three had recording devices affixed to their patrol cars too.

When Officers Dudley and Aguilar returned to 760 Moss Drive, they met Arreola. Arreola exited his car to speak with the officers. Arreola acted strangely, and Officers Dudley and Aguilar quickly suspected that he suffered from drug use, a mental health problem, or both.

At 5:14:20 A.M., less than five minutes after his arrival, Officer Aguilar asked Arreola if “[he had] ever been diagnosed with anything. Like paranoia, schizophrenic – anything?” Arreola denied mental illness and alcohol abuse.

Officers Aguilar and Dudley attempted to determine why Arreola believed his mother was in danger. Eventually, Arreola’s mother came out to the road in twenty-degree weather to reason with her son in an attempt to get him inside. Arreola declined.

Arreola questioned the motives and identities of Officers Dudley and Aguilar and indicated that he would go stay with a friend in the neighborhood. Then Arreola walked into a neighboring yard. Officer Aguilar asked Arreola to return to the street.

At 5:21:04 A.M., Officer Dudley requested EMS respond to 760 Moss Drive for a “psych eval”, whereupon Officers Dudley and Aguilar decided to detain Arreola. 36.

Then, Officer Dudley asked, “You got gloves?” In response, Officer Aguilar remarks, “Dude. He’s gonna fight like hell. At this point, why don’t we just let him... let him settle down.”

Officers Dudley and Aguilar walked toward Arreola who had approached the residence at 747 Moss Drive knocking on the door. Officers Dudley and Aguilar instructed Arreola leave the yard at 747 Moss Drive or face jail. Arreola disregarded the officers’ instructions. Arreola also ignored his mother’s entreaties to return home.

At 5:24:30 A.M., as the officers and Concepcion Arreola continued to reason with Arreola, Officer Aguilar radioed, “28, dispatch. If you could have EMS just come, routine. No lights, no sirens. Hard no siren.”

Then, Officers Aguilar and Dudley approached Arreola to place him in custody. Officers Dudley and Aguilar struggled with Arreola as Arreola protested, “I didn’t do nothing”

At 5:25:15 A.M., Arreola’s struggle with Officers Dudley and Aguilar began. As the struggle unfolded, all three men fell to the ground in the front yard at 747 Moss Drive, Arreola screamed, “Ma! They’re gonna kill me!” and continued to resist the officers’ efforts to handcuff him by holding his hands under his body.

The officers instructed Arreola to roll over on his stomach as he asked whether the events were being recorded. Officers Dudley and Aguilar put Arreola on his stomach with his face in the dirt, and they sat on his back. They also put their knee(s) in Arreola’s back and upper torso. At 05:26:50 A.M., Officer Aguilar told Officer Dudley, “Just flatten him out,” while Arreola continued to scream, “Ma! They’re going to kill me!”

In his audio recorded January 10, 2017, statement to the Columbus Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards (OOPS) investigators, Officer Aguilar said he weighed 300 lbs. or more when he struggled with Arreola, and he sat in the middle of Arreola’s back so that he could flatten him out.

After Officer Aguilar indicated to Officer Dudley that the strategy was to flatten Arreola, and immediately after Officer Aguilar said, “I’m flattening him,” Arreola first said that he could not breathe, crying, “Ow. I can’t breathe,” at 5:27:17 A.M.

Arreola said that he could not breathe at least 13 times after he first complained that he could not breathe.

Arreola’s complaints that he couldn’t breathe became progressively weaker. In agony, Arreola sobbed. As he audibly choked, gasped, and struggled to breathe, Arreola begged for help.

At 05:27:38 A.M., in response to Arreola’s complaint that he couldn’t breathe, and when Concepcion Arreola expressed concern, Officer Aguilar said, “He can breathe.” Four seconds earlier, Officer Aguilar reported to dispatch that they had Arreola “contained” but not handcuffed.

At 05:29:09 A.M., Officer Dudley alerted Officer Aguilar that he had secured the last handcuff.

At 5:29:16 A.M., Officer Aguilar reported, “28 to Dispatch. We finally got him in handcuffs. You can slow down all the units.”

After he was handcuffed, Arreola continued to sob, beg, and plead for help, and he ceased resisting and struggling with the police. At 5:29:28 A.M., Arreola again cried, “I can’t breathe in!”

Responding to a call for additional officers, Officer Aaron Evrard arrived on scene. At 5:29:24 A.M., he turned off his siren and exited his patrol car. At 05:29:54 A.M., Officer Evrard arrived in the yard at 747 Moss Drive and approached Officers Dudley and Aguilar.

At 05:30:01 A.M.,1 as Officer Evrard approached Arreola, Dudley, and Aguilar, his body cam captured footage of Officer Aguilar seated with his full weight on Arreola’s upper buttocks/lower back and Officer Dudley with his left knee in Arreola’s mid-back. Arreola was face-down, on his stomach with his hands securely cuffed behind his back.

At 05:30:03 A.M., Officer Aguilar remarked to Officer Evrard, “Minimal force used.” Then,

Officer Evrard asked if they need a break. Thereafter, relieving Officers Aguilar and Dudley, Officer Evrard positioned himself on Arreola’s back.

A few seconds after Officer Evrard sat on Arreola’s back, Columbus Police Department Police Officer Ronnie Oakes (Officer Oakes) arrived. Officer Evrard asked Officer Oakes to hold Arreola’s legs. Officer Oakes did.

Officer Evrard remained on Arreola’s back until 5:31:17 A.M. when he stood up to pat Arreola down and search him.

Arreola was continuously face-down, on his stomach for almost six minutes with a police officer or officers applying substantial force to his back and neck by sitting on him or by putting a knee into his back, or both. Even after Arreola was handcuffed, he remained face-down on the ground with heavy weight and substantial force applied to his back by police officers for over two minutes.

Arreola was on his stomach, face down for over six minutes before Officer Aguilar, finally, heaved Arreola into a sitting position. When Arreola was placed in a sitting position, at 5:33:03 A.M., he was obviously unresponsive and in distress.

Arreola posed no threat to any person or himself once he was contained. Arreola posed no threat to the safety of any person or himself after he was handcuffed. Arreola did not resist or struggle with the police after he was handcuffed.

No less than 5 times after he was handcuffed and while a police officer remained on his back, Arreola sobbed, “I can’t breathe.”

After he was handcuffed, Arreola continued to beg for his life and was in obvious physical distress. Arreola’s mother expressed concern to the police officers repeatedly. Nevertheless, despite Arreola’s obvious serious medical condition, Officers Dudley, Aguilar, and Evrard failed to alert Columbus EMS or anyone else that an emergency situation had developed requiring immediate medical care for Arreola.

Even though the police officers noticed that Arreola was unresponsive and that his eyes were fixed and dilated, they failed to seek emergent treatment for Arreola’s serious medical condition.

After the police officers alerted dispatch that the scene was “clear for EMS,” they stood around talking while they waited for EMS to respond “routine” as requested earlier. They rendered no aid to Arreola.

The police officers briefed Columbus EMS personnel when they arrived on scene but failed to mention the extreme and prolonged force applied to Arreola’s back, head, and neck. The police officers did not tell Columbus EMS personnel that Arreola complained of an inability to breathe until he became unresponsive.

The agreement maintains the police officers did nothing wrong, and says the city offered the settlement without the officers’ consent. The officers “expressly deny any and all liability, responsibility and potential liability,” and the settlement “shall not be construed as an admission of liability,” the agreement states.

NAACP leaders in Columbus have likened Arreola’s death to that of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Columbus NAACP branch President Wane Hailes has said Arreola said 16 times that he couldn’t breathe as an officer sat on him for more than two minutes while Arreola was handcuffed.

The officers were put on administrative leave during an investigation, but have returned to duty.

In June, U.S. District Judge Clay Land ruled that he would not halt the wrongful death lawsuit against officers Michael Aguilar, Brian Dudley and Aaron Evrard, despite their concerns that the district attorney is seeking to indict them on criminal charges. Land said he doesn’t believe they can be successfully prosecuted for a crime.

The officers sought a postponement in the civil case after Muscogee County District Attorney Mark Jones named private attorney Christopher Breault as a special prosecutor investigating Arreola’s death. Jones said he hoped Breault would be ready to present the case for possible indictment during the current court term, which ends in August.

The officers’ attorneys argued the criminal investigation hampered their defense in the civil suit, saying they could testify if they weren’t compelled to use their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination.

Land wrote that the statute of limitations has run out on all possible state charges except murder, and that the evidence he has seen shows it’s unlikely that prosecutors could prove that officers acted with premeditated malice or that they killed Arreola while committing a separate felony. Those are the grounds for murder under Georgia law. Why is this racist suspect judge making prosecutorial decisions?

Jones last month said he respects Land’s ruling, but that the criminal case should be heard by a grand jury.