Hotel workers in Milwaukee fired after death of black man held outside hotel

The employees allegedly involved in the death of a black man who was pushed to the ground outside a hotel in downtown Milwaukee have been fired, the hotel operator announced late Wednesday evening.

Aimbridge Hospitality said: “We are saddened and shocked by what happened to D’vontaye Mitchell at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee and extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

“The conduct of several employees on June 30 violated our policies and procedures and does not reflect our values ​​as a company or the behavior we expect from our employees. After reviewing their actions, their employment has been terminated. We will continue our independent investigation and do everything we can to assist law enforcement in their investigation of this tragic incident.”

Hyatt said in an earlier statement that it “joins the family of D’Vontaye Mitchell in their calls for transparency, accountability and justice for this senseless tragedy. We believe the Aimbridge Hospitality employees involved should be fired and charged.”

The family also demands that charges be brought.

Mitchell, 43, died at the Hyatt Regency after four security guards restrained him and held him on his stomach, media reported. Police said Mitchell entered the hotel, caused a disturbance and fought with hotel staff as they escorted him out. The family disputes that account.

The medical examiner has ruled the cause of death as homicide, but the cause of death is still under investigation. No charges have been filed against anyone so far.

The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that it and police investigators were awaiting the results of a full autopsy and that the case was being investigated as a homicide.

Mitchell’s family is angry and shocked

Surveillance and body camera footage viewed by Mitchell’s family and attorneys at the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday showed an unarmed man running for his life while being beaten and kicked, they said during an afternoon news conference.

“What I saw today was disgusting. It makes me sick,” said Mitchell’s widow, DeAsia Harmon. “He was running for his life. He wanted to get away. He said, ‘I’m leaving,’ and they wouldn’t let him go.”

Harmon said the video shows Mitchell being dragged out of the hotel, bleeding. “They didn’t stop. They could have let him go, but they didn’t,” she said.

Prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said the family’s legal team also has an affidavit from a hotel employee who testified that a security guard struck Mitchell with a baton and that Mitchell posed no threat as he lay on the ground. The employee said a security guard ordered him and a bellman to restrain Mitchell, Crump continued.

Another attorney, William Sulton, said the hotel video shows an on-duty hotel security guard taking a photo of Mitchell’s lifeless body while the guard was being questioned by police. “Absolutely disgusting,” Sulton said.

Mitchell’s sister, Nayisha Mitchell, told Milwaukee-based CBS affiliate WDJT-TV after seeing the video: “After seeing it up close, I can tell you it is much, much, much, much worse.”

DeAsia Harmon told the station that it was especially hard “to see the people involved, to see their faces, to see that they showed no remorse.”

Sulton told WDJT that authorities’ initial account — that security guards detained Mitchell for entering a women’s restroom — was false. “An off-duty security guard attacked D’Vontaye. D’Vontaye ran from that individual,” he said.

Sulton added that Mitchell went into the ladies’ room to escape the attacker, and Hyatt employees, including a bellboy and a front desk employee, dragged him out.

Sulton said they “pressed his head to the ground so hard that he is bleeding. Forehead, nose and mouth.”

Sulton assured WDJT that Mitchell did nothing to provoke the incident. “There was no criminal conduct by D’Vontaye Mitchell,” he said.

It’s unclear why Mitchell was at the hotel or what happened before guards detained him. The Milwaukee County coroner initially reported he was homeless, but a cousin told The Associated Press on Wednesday that was incorrect.

Crump said a video recorded by a bystander and circulating on social media also shows that security forces used excessive force to subdue Mitchell.

“In the video you can see them pressing their knees on his back and neck,” Crump said, and the security guard appears to hit Mitchell on the head with an object. “You can see them pulling his shirt over his head, not only preventing him from speaking, but we believe also preventing him from breathing.”

Shawn Moore told CBS News on Tuesday that he witnessed part of the incident when he went to a nearby Walgreens to pick up some things for his son. He said he was walking toward the hotel when he heard screaming.

The four guards did not let go of Mitchell until police officers reached the hotel, Moore said, recalling that “one held his ankles and the other three applied pressure above the waist and held him down.”

Mitchell was born and raised in Milwaukee, according to his cousin Samantha Mitchell, 37. He has not been diagnosed with any possible mental illness.

“D’Vontaye loved to cook,” she said. “He was overprotective of his family, especially his younger cousins. He was a jokester. He really clung to many of our male cousins ​​while growing up and enjoyed life together.”

GOP convention, George Floyd, racial justice

She said the family postponed his funeral from Saturday to Thursday so its significance would not be overshadowed by the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which begins next week.

“We need to bring the issue to light and not sweep it under the rug,” Mitchell said. “Regardless of whether the convention happens, this is still an issue that requires everyone’s attention, no matter what party you belong to. I want people to talk about it while they’re here for the convention. That will say a lot.”

Mitchell’s death is the latest flashpoint in the nation’s handling of racial issues and what some see as systematic brutality against black people by law enforcement or other authority figures, four years after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020.

“Just because Milwaukee has a big event coming up soon, the killing of D’Vontaye Mitchell is as important as anything else that’s going to happen in Milwaukee this month,” Crump told reporters Monday.

Crump also represented the Floyd family, whose death sparked worldwide protests against racist violence and police brutality.

“After the George Floyd case, everyone in America should have trained their employees, especially security personnel, not to knee people on the back and neck,” Crump added.