CHICAGO — Family members of a northwest Indiana father who died after being restrained by police are wanting to see the cops’ body camera footage and have hired a prominent lawyer to do it.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump joined survivors of 26-year-old Rhyker Earl and family attorney Steve Wagner at the Chicago Urban League on Monday to demand “transparency” in the investigation and to refute claims made by the Jasper County sheriff that Wagner had “gaslit” the community about what happened when police responded to the family’s 911 call.
“The sheriff thinks I’m gaslighting him by asking for these answers,” Wagner told me. “I’m not sure he knows what gaslighting means.”
Earl was diagnosed with epilepsy several years ago and was taking medicine, but he had numerous seizures on September 8, leading his grandma to contact 911. She described Monday how EMTs requested her to go into the bathroom and close the door when they arrived at Earl’s DeMotte, Indiana, house.
“When I got out of the bathroom, the fire department was there. There were two ambulances there. “There was police all over the place, which, to a person having a seizure, makes him nervous,” Connie Weidner recalled, characterizing her grandson as a “good kid.”
According to family and a lawsuit, officers dragged Earl to the ground and tied him behind his back, cradling his face in a pillow and restricting his respiration.
“Rhyker kept screaming, ‘I can’t breathe!'” I can’t breathe! We’ve been around him for several seizures, and he’s never, ever been violent to anyone. “I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Earl’s grandfather, Chuck Weidner, said through tears.
Earl was rushed to the hospital, but testing revealed that he had no brain activity. He was eventually taken off life support on September 10th.
Sheriff Pat Williamson stated last week that his department had studied body-worn cameras of deputies at the scene and found “false or misleading claims” made by the Earl family attorney. Williamson stated that the pillow was meant to protect Earl from injury and that “his breathing was not restricted.”
Williamson stated that the tape cannot be shared until the Indiana State Police’s investigation is done. WGN News has made a Freedom of Information Act request for the footage.
The reason and manner of death have not been published. The Lake County coroner, who is in charge of the death investigation, told WGN News on Tuesday that an autopsy had been completed, and medical records and toxicology reports were being reviewed. Their chief deputy stated that it typically takes up to three weeks.
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