INDIANAPOLIS °®¶¹app Two Indianapolis police officers were acquitted of manslaughter and other charges Friday in the after officers shocked him with a Taser and restrained him face down while handcuffing him.
Jurors began deliberating Friday morning and took less than three hours to come up with a verdict following five days of testimony in the trial over the 2022 death of Herman Whitfield III, local news outlets reported.
Officers Adam Ahmad and Steven Sanchez were tried together. The jury acquitted them on all charges: one felony count each of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, battery resulting in serious bodily injury and battery resulting in moderate injury, and one misdemeanor battery charge.
Marisa Watson-Juarez, a spokesperson for the Marion County prosecutor°®¶¹apps office, didn°®¶¹appt immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment.
John Kautzman, one of the officers°®¶¹app attorneys, didn°®¶¹appt immediately reply to a phone message left at his office. But he told the Indianapolis Star that the officers are thrilled. An AP call to Mason Riley, another attorney for the officers, rang unanswered.
The Whitfield family°®¶¹apps attorney, Richard Waples, didn°®¶¹appt immediately respond to a voice mail.
Ahmad, 32, and Sanchez, 35, were after Whitfield°®¶¹apps family spent nearly a year demanding that authorities release full body camera videos of his encounter with police and called for the firing of up to six officers.
The videos, which were released in January 2023, document Whitfield°®¶¹apps chaotic final moments.
Both officers have remained on administrative duty with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. The department didn°®¶¹appt immediately respond to an email asking whether their assignments would change given the outcome.
Whitfield°®¶¹apps parents called 911 on April 25, 2022, and reported that their 39-year-old son, a gifted pianist, was in the throes of a mental health crisis at the family°®¶¹apps Indianapolis home.
Whitfield died at a hospital after Sanchez shocked him with a Taser and he and Ahmad held Whitfield face down on the floor of his parents°®¶¹app dining room as he was being handcuffed.
The Marion County Coroner°®¶¹apps Office ruled Whitfield°®¶¹apps death a homicide, caused by heart failure as he was being restrained and shocked.
According to the report, Whitfield weighed 389 pounds. The coroner°®¶¹apps office listed °®¶¹appmorbid obesity°®¶¹app and °®¶¹apphypertensive cardiovascular disease°®¶¹app as contributing factors in his death.
Daniel Cicchini, the chief trial deputy for the Marion County prosecutor°®¶¹apps office, that the two officers acted °®¶¹apprecklessly°®¶¹app by restraining Whitfield face down longer than necessary.
°®¶¹appEssentially, his heart and lungs could no longer function properly,°®¶¹app Cicchini told the jury. °®¶¹appWhen they kept him in that position, they did so recklessly.°®¶¹app
He said the officers°®¶¹app actions left Whitfield °®¶¹appunable to breathe.°®¶¹app
Ahmad and Sanchez°®¶¹apps attorneys argued that the officers did nothing illegal.
One of their attorneys, Mason Riley, said during his opening statement that Whitfield suffered from an enlarged heart. He said Whitfield died °®¶¹appbefore the handcuffing concluded.°®¶¹app
°®¶¹appNeither of them have committed a single criminal act,°®¶¹app Riley said of the co-defendants.
He also said neither officer, nor other officers who responded to the family°®¶¹apps home, heard Whitfield say that he couldn°®¶¹appt breathe.
A lawsuit filed by Whitfield°®¶¹apps family against the city of Indianapolis and six police officers, including Ahmad, Sanchez and Clark, states that Whitfield °®¶¹appdied because of the force used against him°®¶¹app and calls the force used against him °®¶¹appunreasonable and excessive.°®¶¹app
The family is seeking unspecified damages. That civil case is set for trial in July in federal court in Indianapolis.
