Prosecutors on Tuesday charged four Milwaukee hotel employees with capital murder in connection with the death of D’Vonte Mitchell.
Mitchell was Black. The incident has been compared to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died in 2020 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked a national reckoning over race relations through multiple protests across the country.
Hotel security guard Todd Erickson, front desk employee Devin Johnson-Carson, bellhop Herbert Williamson and security guard Brandon Turner have been charged. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years and nine months in prison.
Reached by telephone Tuesday evening, Erickson referred requests for comment to his attorney, Michael Steinle, who did not respond to a voicemail or email message.
It was unclear whether any of the other three employees had attorneys. No attorneys were listed for them in online court records Tuesday evening. A telephone listing for Williamson was disconnected, and The Associated Press could not immediately find phone numbers or other contact information for Johnson-Carson or Turner.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release that arrest warrants have been issued for all four employees. The office and the Milwaukee Police Department did not immediately respond to emails asking if the employees had been arrested or had attorneys.
According to the criminal complaint, four employees dragged Mitchell out of the Hyatt Hotel on June 30 after Mitchell entered a woman’s bathroom and pressed down on her stomach for eight or nine minutes. One of the employees told investigators that Mitchell was having trouble breathing and repeatedly pleaded for help, according to the complaint.
The autopsy revealed Mitchell was obese and had used cocaine and methamphetamine, the complaint said.
The complaint states that Hyatt surveillance video shows Mitchell running into the hotel lobby and then running into the gift shop before entering the women’s bathroom. A few seconds later, a woman exits and Turner, who was not on duty but was visiting staff at the time, grabs Mitchell by her shirt and pulls her from the bathroom into the lobby.
The two begin to fight and Turner punches Mitchell, knocking him to the ground. He then punches Mitchell six times and drags him out of the hotel with the help of a passerby. Mitchell gets up and tries to go back inside.
Williamson, Johnson-Carson and Erickson, who was on duty as a security manager, then joined the fight. Together with Turner, they held Mitchell in a stomach-lock for eight to nine minutes before police and emergency response crews arrived. According to the complaint, video shows Mitchell trying to break free several times and Erickson hitting him with a stick, but eventually he stopped moving.
A video made by a witness includes audio of Mitchell moaning and saying he was sorry. The autopsy found that Mitchell was obese and had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system.
The county medical examiner ultimately determined that Mitchell died of “restraint asphyxiation.” According to the complaint, the medical examiner said he could have survived if staff had allowed him to turn on his side.
Erickson told investigators that Mitchell was very strong and kept resisting and trying to bite him. But the guard said he did not do anything to intentionally hurt or harm Mitchell.
Turner told a detective that he had heard women screaming after Mitchell entered the bathroom, and that he thought Mitchell was doing drugs. At one point while the group was holding Mitchell, he pulled Mitchell’s clothes off of his face, according to the complaint.
Johnson-Carson told investigators Mitchell was out of his right mind and was talking nonsense, the complaint states.
She said she remembers Mitchell saying something about “stop” and “why” and breathing while she was holding him down. She asked Williamson to stop applying pressure, which he did. Johnson-Carson said Mitchell “showed clear signs of extreme distress, including gaggling, difficulty breathing and repeated pleas for help,” according to the complaint.
The complaint concludes that the staff knew Mitchell was in trouble. “All of these factors, DM’s shortness of breath, his actions and words, his distress, demonstrate that all four defendants knew that placing DM face-first on the ground was ‘practically certain’ that his physical condition would worsen,” the complaint states.
Mitchell’s relatives and their lawyers had previously reviewed hotel surveillance video provided by the district attorney’s office. They said Mitchell was chased inside the hotel by security guards and then dragged outside, where he was beaten.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is part of the team of lawyers representing Mitchell’s family, has said that a video recorded by a bystander that is circulating on social media shows security guards placing their knees on Mitchell’s back and neck.
Crump posted a statement Tuesday evening on X! in which he called the charges “an important step toward justice for the family of De’Vonte Mitchell!”
Mitchell’s widow, DeAsia Harmon, said Tuesday that the decision was a relief. But she questioned why it took so many weeks.
“These people are taking my husband’s life on camera,” she said. “They should have been charged the moment they did it.”
Aimbridge Hospitality, the company that manages the hotel, previously said several employees involved in Mitchell’s death had been fired.
The company issued a statement Tuesday evening saying it has fully cooperated with law enforcement and will continue to cooperate with prosecutors. “Our thoughts are with Mr. Mitchell’s family and loved ones as this matter moves forward,” the statement said.