Byron Lee Williams.
The family of a Black man whodied in police custody after he was stopped for allegedly riding a bike without a safety lighthas filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the officers involved.
“If we don’t do something, there will be another Byron Williams, anotherGeorge Floyd,” Crump added.
Afterward Williams was dragged into a patrol car. Less than an hour later, at the hospital, he was pronounced dead.
Metro police and Las Vegas city officials declined to comment on the civil lawsuit, reports theLas Vegas Review-Journal. In addition to the police department and the city, the lawsuit names as defendants Clark County, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, and the four involved Metro officers: Patrick Campbell, Benjamin Vasquez, Alexander Gonzalez and Rocky Roman.
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Officers called for him to stop, but Williams continued on his bike with officers in pursuit before ditching it and fleeing on foot. Ultimately, he stopped and complied with officers' orders to lie on the ground. They “immediately” restrained him in a prone position with “knees to the shoulders, back and buttocks,” and then to Williams' head, while applying handcuffs, the lawsuit alleges.
As Williams had tried to pedal away, the officers had radioed a “Code Red” to other officers indicating an emergency, the lawsuit states.
“LVMPD is alleging that the existing emergency that prompted the ‘Code Red’ was Byron Lee Williams riding his bicycle without a safety light,” alleges the lawsuit, “despite the fact that it was already becoming light outside.”
With Williams detained, the lawsuit alleges that officers mocked Williams as he pleaded with them for help, and two of them high-fived each other.
“In this context, homicide means that the actions of another person or other people resulted in, or contributed to, the death,” Fudenberg said ina statement issued in October 2019. “It is not a determination of criminal activity or wrongdoing.”
‘No choice but to think about George Floyd’
“You have no choice but to think about George Floyd because the situations are similar in so many ways,” said Brandon Williams, George Floyd’s nephew, reports KLAS. “Byron Williams said he couldn’t breathe 24 times. George said he couldn’t breathe nearly 30 times.”
source: people.com
