HOMICIDE

Medical Examiner Rules Irvo Otieno’s Death a Homicide

Lawyers for the man’s family said the results of the autopsy were “not surprising” and likened Otieno’s death to that of George Floyd.

The Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has officially labeled Irvo Otieno’s manner of death to be “homicide,” and his official cause of death to be “positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints,” according to a release by the lawyers representing Otieno’s mother. His attorneys, famed civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump and Mark Krudys, said in a joint statement that the medical examiner's findings weren’t “suprising.” “In a chilling parallel to George Floyd’s killing, Irvo was held down and excessively restrained to death, when he should have been provided medical help and compassion. It is tragic that yet another life has been lost to this malicious and deadly restraint technique,” they wrote.