The wife of D’Vontaye Mitchell and her attorney shared surveillance footage Friday evening from the night the 43-year-old died outside of the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
At a press conference, Will Sulton, the attorney for Mitchell’s wife and daughter, detailed the footage that shows Mitchell running through the lobby, staff and a bystander striking him repeatedly and him being restrained. The footage release came the same day the medical examiner ruled Mitchell’s June 30 death a homicide.
Some of what happened that day was known, as bystander video captured hotel employees holding Mitchell down outside of the hotel, but much of what happened prior wasn’t publicly available until Friday. Sulton reviewed the footage weeks ago with the family and said previously, “D’Vontaye was trying to run for his life.”
Sulton said the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office provided him with the footage and other images following a subpoena.
The Journal Sentinel has independently reviewed the footage provided by Sulton — five clips from surveillance cameras inside the hotel, the entrance, and just outside. Sulton said Hyatt has not provided all of the relevant footage. Here’s what the videos show.
Mitchell runs through lobby, gift shop, into women’s bathroom
Footage from inside the hotel lobby shows Mitchell entering, and he is seen running through the lobby into the gift shop. It’s unclear what happened just outside the door, but Sulton said Mitchell was attacked by an off-duty security guard. Hyatt has not provided that footage, Sulton said.
Mitchell’s family believes he was suffering from a mental health episode. The medical examiner’s report determined Mitchell’s cause of death was “restraint asphyxia and toxic effects of cocaine and methamphetamine.” The report said Mitchell’s injury occurred as he was “restrained in prone position by multiple individuals after drug (cocaine, methamphetamine) use.”
Mitchell exits the gift shop and goes into the women’s bathroom when the same off-duty security guard approaches the area off-camera. Moments later, a woman exits the bathroom and goes to the front desk while the security guard is seen escorting Mitchell out the hotel.
Sulton said there were two women in the bathroom when Mitchell ran in. Both those women said Mitchell was scared and needed help, according to Sulton.
A struggle ensues and then the guard punches Mitchell in the face. A hotel guest also becomes involved in the struggle. Mitchell is thrown to the ground by the guard and guest before being dragged into the hotel entrance.
Hotel vestibule camera shows Mitchell repeatedly punched in the face, struck with broom
A camera inside the hotel vestibule captured what happened next. The guard and guest continue to drag Mitchell as he seems to be struggling to stand, but is not throwing punches or kicking.
Another hotel employee is seen picking up a nearby broom and striking Mitchell on the leg. The guard then punches Mitchell in the face multiple times while in the doorway of the hotel.
A camera outside the hotel entrance shows Mitchell is next kicked in the face by another hotel employee before being dragged into the driveway by an employee and a guest. Footage shows the off-duty security guard throwing more punches and directing Mitchell to turn over.
Once turned over, Sulton said an employee forced Mitchell’s head into the ground. He received more records from the medical examiner and provided specifics on Friday. Among the records were photos of blunt force injuries to Mitchell’s head and body, including broken ribs. Sulton said the forehead injuries were caused by the four employees restraining him on the concrete.
“All of this is designed to cause physical pain,” Sulton said. “There’s no other explanation.”
The employees continue to hold Mitchell down and at one point an employee hits Mitchell in the head with a baton while restrained, Sulton said. The original bystander video shows that this employee said to the camera, “This is what happens when a man goes into the ladies’ room.”
The men then held Mitchell in that position until he died.
It’s unclear when an employee called police, and the Journal Sentinel has requested the time dispatch was called.
Several employees and others were present as the incident unfolded at the Hyatt. “I submit that we call that party to a crime in our state,” Sulton said. “This is just a straight up beatdown.”
Sulton said other people tried to intervene but Hyatt employees threatened them.
“It’s not that nobody’s doing anything, it’s that these people are scared,” he said. “People took to social media to make sure people knew what would happen and without those video footage, they absolutely would have swept this under the rug.”
Attorney says its ‘appalling’ how authorities have handled the case
The Milwaukee Police Department referred four charges of felony murder to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office in early July. Prosecutors have not made a charging decision.
Sulton said, based off the video, eight people should be charged with crimes. He said the department has been unprofessional and has lied about treating the death as a criminal matter. He specifically mentioned Police Chief Jeffrey Norman several times at Friday’s news conference for prior comments he made, which he described as “visceral.”
Norman said he wanted to “set the record straight” in response to Mitchell’s death at a news conference just days after the death. “If it’s not something being reviewed in a criminal nature, then why is the DA looking at it? So we need to make sure that we set the record straight in regard to what’s going on and who’s talking in our community,” he said.
Sulton said he had to take legal action to get transparency.
“The City of Milwaukee Police Department told the ME’s office not to release any information, documents, or recordings to my office or the family,” Sulton said. “The medical examiner’s office has … its own independent legal obligations and they’re simply setting those to the side and just saying we’re only gonna do what the police department does. It’s absolutely outrageous and it’s 1,000% wrong.
“I really think that it’s appalling in this particular case that this family had to go out hire a lawyer, file a case, issue a subpoena in order to get basic information. … The police department needs to answer for why it is coddling these folks.”
Sulton said it’s not just the police department but private security hired by companies like Hyatt, and its operator, Aimbridge Hospitality.
“The truth of the matter is that society doesn’t value all lives in the same way,” he said. “We have a significant problem with private security who run around like they’re police and they’re not. They don’t have the authority to detain. They don’t the authority to arrest. They don’t have the authority to beat you.”
Sulton said bodycam footage of the arriving officers shows interviews with the employees and witnesses. He said multiple employees lie about the events. The Journal Sentinel has not reviewed this footage.
‘He was afraid’ and ‘you beat him to death,’ Mitchell’s wife says
Mitchell’s wife, DeAsia Harmon, was overcome with emotion while watching the footage again on Friday at Sulton’s law firm on North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
“I’ve never forgotten what this looks like,” she said. “Now it’s made to the public, I have to make sure my daughter doesn’t see it. … This is somebody I spent 12 years of my life with and now I have to watch his life being taken for nothing. If he was wrong, he could have went to jail.
“He was afraid. He’s a big guy, if he wanted to harm somebody it wouldn’t be hard. He wanted to leave.”
Harmon said she would understand restraining him nonlethally until police arrived, but “what they did to him was excessive. They didn’t have to do him like that.”
“You have to hold so much hatred in your heart to take someone’s life like that. You beat him to death.”
Drake Bentley can be reached at [email protected] or 414-391-5647.
David Clarey of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Video shows D’Vontaye Mitchell was beat by Hyatt employees and guest
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