RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Three Virginia police officers repeatedly used stuns guns on a man who later died in their custody, according to recently released video that has brought new attention to the case from May 2013.
The video, first obtained by MSNBC, shows the officers in South Boston, Virginia, repeatedly shocking Linwood R. Lambert Jr. after he ran from a police cruiser to the doors of an emergency room and again when he’s back in the cruiser, restrained in the back seat.
Lambert’s family filed a $25 million lawsuit in April, accusing the officers of unlawfully arresting him and using “excessive, unreasonable and deadly force.”
Defendants, including the officers and the town, have denied the allegations in court documents. The officers weren’t criminally charged, and their attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday.
The officers, who were not named in the lawsuit, took Lambert into custody after responding to a noise complaint at a motel and took him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, according to court documents.
The video shows the officers and Lambert arriving at the hospital and Lambert kicking out the window of the police cruiser and running toward the emergency room doors. The officers chase after Lambert and shock him repeatedly as he stands in front of the doors and falls to the ground.
The officers can be heard yelling at Lambert to roll over on his stomach. One of them tells him, ‘I’m going to light you up again.” Another warns that every time he gets up the officer is going to “pop” him.
While lying on the ground, Lambert says: “Why are you trying to kill me, man?”
The officers put Lambert back in the squad car, where they shocked him again while he was restrained, according to the video. When he is taken back to the hospital about an hour later, he is pronounced dead.
Lambert told the officers in the video that he did cocaine and the autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press says he died of “acute cocaine intoxication.”
An attorney for Lambert’s family didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.
The officers have rejected claims that they used excessive use of force, saying in court documents that the use of the stun gun “an appropriate and necessary use of force alternative to more harmful and lethal options available to law enforcement officers.”
Watch the video, via CBS, below:
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