Attorneys for the family said the deputies and jail medical staff members who looked on as Christian Black sat slumped in a restraint chair should be criminally charged in his death.
“There was no sense of urgency,” said his father, Kenya Black. “You could clearly see he was unconscious.”
Black, 25, of Zanesville, died on March 26, two days after he was taken from the Montgomery County jail to a hospital in Dayton. He was in the jail after police said he crashed a stolen car.
The county coroner’s office said last week that Black likely died from positional asphyxia, which happens when the chest can’t expand, starving the body of oxygen. His death, which is still under investigation, was ruled a homicide by the coroner.
Fair.
But when an officer discharges their weapon it’s in the police report, which is publicly available.
If no other weapons are involved and someone is shot then it’s a fact that they shot whoever was hit by a their bullet.
Whether they are guilty of homicide is a decision for the court. Whether they killed someone is a matter of fact.