'He needed a helping hand': D'Vontaye Mitchell's family, attorneys call for charges against security guards; DA's office cautions testing could take time

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- D'Vontaye Mitchell's family gathered Monday, July 8, just steps from where the 43-year-old died Sunday, June 30, after he was restrained by four security guards outside the Hyatt Regency hotel.

The family's attorneys are calling on the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office to file charges.

An official in the DA's office told us it could be the end of the month before charges could be filed in this case, but they said that is not out of the ordinary.

The DA's office already has witness videos of the incident, preliminary incident reports from MPD and the preliminary death report from the medical examiner's office. But the DA's office is awaiting further testing they say will simply take time to complete.

In the meantime, Mitchell's family is grieving his death and looking for closure.

At a news conference held Monday afternoon, DeAsia Harmon, D'Vontaye Mitchell's wife, said, "I couldn't even go to the grocery store with my daughter without her being afraid of the security standing at the door."

Harmon is still struggling to process her husband's death. So is her daughter.

Harmon joined Mitchell's mother, siblings, and the mother of his son to call for criminal charges against the four security guards that restrained him June 30.

Mitchell eventually stopped breathing and was pronounced dead.

MPD's initial release said Mitchell had caused a disturbance. His family said it was a mental health episode.

Benjamin Crump is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney who is now representing Mitchell's family. At the news conference, he said Mitchell "was having a mental health crisis. He needed a helping hand, not a knee to the neck, not a knee to the back."

Crump is one of three attorneys representing Mitchell's family. Milwaukee attorneys William Sulton and B'Ivory LaMarr are co-counsels on the case.

The attorneys say witness video of the incident is all the evidence needed to move forward.

Sulton said, "You're watching a murder, folks, that's what you're watching."

LaMarr later added, "That is enough to show the recklessness, to show the negligence and the intentional acts."

But an official in the DA's office said it will simply take time before charges could be filed.

A preliminary report from the medical examiner's office classified Mitchell's death as a homicide, but more testing is currently underway.

The official in the DA's office said that's not out of the ordinary, adding they rarely get an ME's report that does not require further testing.

While the family waits, the message from Mitchell's supporters is to watch the video.

LaMarr said, "This is what happens when you fail to recognize that a mental illness is not a death sentence."

A Hyatt spokesperson said the hotel's operator suspended the security guards involved, but the attorneys said they should have been fired immediately.

They took aim Monday at the Hyatt corporation as a whole, at the security guards individually, and at whomever may have trained them.

Sulton told the crowd, "This is how they train them, folks. George Floyd wasn't the first, and now you know he's not going to be the last."

In the meantime, the family says they have gotten no updates from Milwaukee police investigators since Mitchell died.

Brenda Giles, D'Vontaye Mitchell's mother, said, "We need peace. We need to be able to rest. I have not been able to sleep, rest, nothing. I'm just numb right now."

The official at the district attorney's office said there is no evidence the security guards are off-duty or former police officers.

Mitchell's family is planning a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening, July 10, outside the Hyatt Regency.

Mitchell's funeral will be held the next day, Thursday, July 11 at 11 a.m. at Holy Redeemer Church.

The Reverend Al Sharpton is scheduled to deliver the eulogy.