MIlwaukee – The Rev. Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver a eulogy for a black man who died last month after being pinned to the ground by security guards at a Milwaukee hotel, his office said Tuesday.
The death of Dvontaye Mitchell has drawn comparisons to the murder of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in Minneapolis in 2020 after a white police officer knelt on his neck.
Sharpton, a longtime activist and leader of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said in a news release he will speak at Mitchell’s funeral on Thursday. The Republican National Convention begins just days later, on July 15, and law enforcement is preparing for political protests around the convention grounds in Wisconsin’s largest city.
Sharpton said convention attendees needed to be informed of Mitchell’s death.
“We cannot stand by and watch the RNC cover up the murder of Dvontaye Mitchell in the city where they will support a candidate whose idea of justice is pure brute force,” Sharpton said, referring to former President Donald Trump.
Mitchell, 43, died at the Hyatt Regency on June 30 after four security guards pinned him to his stomach, media reported. Police said Mitchell entered the hotel, caused a disturbance and fought with security guards as they escorted him out.
Mitchell’s family has hired civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented Floyd’s family. His death sparked worldwide protests against racist violence and police brutality.
It’s unclear why Mitchell was at the hotel or what happened before guards detained him. The initial report from the Milwaukee County coroner said Mitchell was homeless, but his family told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that wasn’t accurate. Sharpton said in a news release announcing his visit to Milwaukee that Mitchell’s mother said her son had suffered a “psychological seizure.”
As of Tuesday, police officials were still investigating Mitchell’s death, the Journal Sentinel reported. The police department responded to an Associated Press request for an update with an emailed statement saying an unidentified person had fought with security guards at the hotel on June 30 and was unresponsive when officers arrived.
The medical examiner has listed the preliminary cause of death as homicide, but the cause of death is still under investigation. No charges have been filed as of Tuesday.
A spokesman for Aimbridge Hospitality, which operates the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee, told The Washington Post that the company extends its condolences to Mitchell’s family and supports the ongoing investigation.
