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Jackson Police Department

Photo: Barbara Gauntt / AP

Three former police officers from the US state of Mississippi have apparently made jokes about a black man who died in their custody. This can be seen from bodycam footage of the emergency services, which the capital Jackson has published. According to the information, two defendants were charged with murder and one accused with manslaughter.

The case is about the death of Keith Murriel, 41, on New Year's Eve 2022. Three police officers had detained the man and repeatedly attacked him with stun guns, the AP news agency reported, citing the video footage. The forces had wanted to arrest him for alleged trespassing in a hotel after they had asked him to leave the associated parking lot, it said.

The footage shows the police struggling to handcuff Murriel while repeatedly shocking him with electric shocks for more than ten minutes. According to a city spokeswoman, two of the police officers are black, one is white.

"I hope he's asleep"

After the forces had put Murriel handcuffs, they put him, according to the recordings, in the back seat of a patrol car. 17 minutes of the one-hour clip show police officers trying to get Murriel into the vehicle. In the remaining 43 minutes, it was not seen that the police officers were checking whether the detainee needed medical attention.

The footage is divided into several clips and it's unclear if the off-camera cops took care of Murriel. However, according to the AP, the footage shows that the police officers joked about the encounter with Murriel and laughed at the arrestee. "I hope he's asleep. Because if he sleeps, it's going to be a good trip," a police officer can be heard saying, referring to Murriel with a racial insult.

Twelve minutes after the start of the next clip, paramedics arrived. When one of them opened the rear door of the patrol car, he noticed that Murriel was not breathing. Rescuers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation before transporting Murriel to a local hospital. There he was pronounced dead. One of the police officers said, according to the bodycam footage, that Murriel had choked on his own vomit.

All three police officers involved were placed on leave after the incident and later fired.

In the United States, deadly police operations of a similar nature occur regularly. The case of George Floyd is representative of this: In May 2020, the African-American was killed in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis. At the time, the case led to nationwide protests against police violence and racism. Since then, there has been consternation over similar cases.

wit/AP