The North Carolina police released disturbing footage in which a man arrested on suspicion of drug possession was seen having a seizure and collapsing onto the floor while waiting alone in an interview room.
After Harold Easter pulled over and parked next to a soccer field in the Greenville neighborhood just north of Uptown on January 23, some of his first words to the CMPD officers approaching his car were, “We had some weed. That’s all.”
But when the officers arrived at the driver’s side window, he started shoveling something in his mouth, presumably cocaine, according to what the officers at the scene said on their body-worn cameras.
“Don’t eat it!” the officer at the driver’s side door said to Easter, while tugging on Easter’s red hoodie sweatshirt. “He’s eating it,” the officer says to the other officers approaching.
Easter proceeded to get out of his car and he was arrested without incident. Police took Easter to the headquarters of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, where he was left alone in an interview room for 45 minutes. He asked for water at one point, and it was given to him minutes later.
However, things took a turn for the worse about twenty minutes later, when Easter began seizing, and he quickly collapsed from there. As he visibly shakes before falling to the ground, Easter screams, “You think I want to die?”
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released at least 17 videos in the hopes of giving the public some context of Easter’s arrest and subsequent overdose. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Johnny Jennings admitted that officers violated protocol by failing to check on Easter every fifteen minutes.
“I don’t believe these officers had malicious intent,” Jennings said. “But they did make a bad decision, and they didn’t follow policy. So those bad decisions have consequences. Especially when those decisions have contributed to the loss of a life, a life that we had the responsibility to protect.”
He went on to say that at least five officers who were involved in the incident resigned after an internal investigation into the incident. Mecklenburg County’s District Attorney Spencer Merriweather has since said that the cops who were involved will not be charged.
Merriweather sent a letter to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation saying that he was unable to “prove that Mr. Easter, after having voluntarily eaten a large amount of crack cocaine, would have lived had he received immediate medical attention.”
“In fact, none of the medical experts consulted about the evidence in this matter would be able to testify to a degree of medical certainty that Mr. Easter would have lived after having ingested that amount of cocaine, even if officers had called for medical attention at the time of the initial traffic stop,” Merriweather continued.
Alex Heroy, a lawyer for Easter’s family, told reporters that the 41 year-old’s mother “cried out the whole time for her son” while watching the police footage. He described Easter as dedicated father to which “family meant everything.”
“He’s unbelievable,” Heroy said. “He took his kids to daycare and preschool and school every day, oftentimes staying the day with them and helping out at the school. Family meant everything.”
Easter’s family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
Watch the video below for more details:
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