Attorney for family of man who died after being tased in police custody says he was ‘harassed’ and ‘electrocuted’

By Jaide Garcia and Nadia Romero, CNN

An attorney for the family of Darryl Tyree Williams, who died in police custody last month, says Williams was racially profiled and harassed by Raleigh, North Carolina, police officers during a stop and frisk procedure and that he was “electrocuted to death for nothing.”

Williams was tased twice by two separate officers in the span of 50 seconds during an attempted arrest in January, according to the Raleigh Police Department.

Williams can be heard in bodycam footage released Friday warning police that he had heart problems. The footage shows that shortly after being tased, officers could not detect his pulse and started performing CPR on him while waiting for EMTs to arrive. Wiliams was pronounced dead almost exactly one hour later at a local hospital.

Attorney Dawn Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC, a criminal justice advocacy group advocating for Williams’ family, is calling for the six officers involved in the death of Williams to be fired and prosecuted by an independent prosecutor, among other demands. Blagrove is also calling for RPD to immediately stop their use of tasers.

“It’s heartbreaking to think about any person being electrocuted to death for nothing. In a parking lot, alone, begging, screaming and pleading for mercy that the Raleigh Police Department could not and would not offer him. They need to be held accountable for that,” Blagrove told CNN.

“What we know for sure is that in that moment, he was doing nothing. He was sitting in a car, he was not bothering anyone. He had not done anything that warranted police involvement or police attention,” Blagrove said.

Williams’ family has also retained renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Benjamin Crump, Crump’s office said in a news release.

“Yet again, we see a life lost too soon due to excessive and unreasonable police force,” Crump said in the release. “To continue to deploy a taser on someone who discloses a heart condition and begs for mercy reflects an immense amount of apathy and blatant disregard for life, as we saw in the video footage.”

CNN previously reported that Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson sent a memo to City Manager Marchell Adams-David several days after Williams’ death saying RPD officers allegedly saw an open container of alcohol and marijuana in the car and decided to arrest Williams for possession of a controlled substance.

However, bodycam footage shows Williams repeatedly asking why he and an unidentified passenger were being removed from the car. CNN has detailed the entire police encounter according to the memo, which includes one of the officer’s locating a folded dollar bill in Williams’ pocket containing a “white powdery substance consistent with the appearance of cocaine,” which led to the decision to arrest Williams.

According to the memo and body camera footage, officers were conducting “proactive patrols” of businesses in an area that police said has a history of criminal violations.

Blagrove argues, “There is no question that he should have been read his rights, he should have been informed as to why he was being arrested or detained, none of that happened.”

“This was a harassment of Darryl and his companion,” Blagrove said. “The fact that they claim to have seen an open container and marijuana in the car sounds good and is a practice that we see repeatedly, not just from Raleigh Police Department but from police departments across the country, where they retroactively create scenarios that protect them from the accountability and appearance of impropriety.”

Blagrove has been in touch with Williams’ mother and said her reaction to the bodycam footage has been deeply moving, saying her son “was electrocuted in a parking lot for an open container. She sees that. She feels the outrage that comes with that. And the deep, deep hole that a mother has ripped in her soul when she has to bury a child.”

“While the rest of us see a police interaction that was necessary, what she sees and hears is her baby’s dying breath. His last words. His cry for help,” Blagrove said. “His notification to law enforcement that he had a heart condition. His being completely confused as to what was going on. And his justifiable fear for his life, as evidenced by the fact that his life was taken that night.”

CNN has not been able to reach Williams’ mother, but Blagrove communicated on her behalf that “Darryl was part of the community, he was the heart of his family. He was a man who was loved who was cared for, who was sensitive, who was generous, who was giving and who did not deserve to die on a dirty parking lot ground.”

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent criminal investigation and will present its findings to the Wake County District Attorney, according to Chief Patterson. The six officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Blagrove told CNN the investigation will determine whether charges will be filed. She is also waiting for a completed report from the medical examiner to determine the official cause of death.

CNN reached out Monday to the Raleigh Police Department and the Raleigh Police Protective Association for a response to Blagrove’s allegations of the police failing to follow protocol. Neither entity responded to CNN’s direct questions, but RPD said it does not comment on ongoing investigations, and that “all investigations are ongoing, will be thorough, and will follow the available facts and evidence wherever they lead.”

Raleigh’s Police Protective Association said Saturday, that it “could not determine any criminal actions or policy violations of the officers involved. We respect the process and recognize this incident is currently under investigation by the SBI.”

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