Five Georgia officials were charged with the asphyxiation murder of a festival goer near Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2019, prosecutors said Friday.
Fernando Rodriguez, 24, was naked and was walking on a street after attending the Imagine Music Festival in Hampton, Georgia, on September 20, 2019 when officers confronted him, used a stun gun, and then according to the Henry District Attorney’s office County and edited the body camera video.
He died in a hospital days later, and a state coroner ruled that he was asphyxiated.
After two days of testimony, a district grand jury filed charges of malicious murder, double homicide and aggravated assault against each of the five officers on Friday, the prosecutor’s office said.
According to the DA office, the grand jury also accused every officer of violating the oath of office.
They have been identified as Henry County Police Officers Robert Butera and Quinton Phillips, and Hampton Police Officers Marcus Stroud, Gregory Bowlden and Mason Lewis.
Stroud resigned from the department on October 16, 2019, and Bowlden and Lewis resigned on August 5 that year, said Hampton City manager Alex Cohilas. The status of the district officials was not clear. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in May that they were still employed as police officers.
Law enforcement agencies could not contact the accused and their services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Arrest warrants against the officers are expected to be issued next week, the prosecutor said.
Cohilas emailed that the city of Hampton is cooperating with the district attorney, adding, “Given the charges and ongoing criminal proceedings on the matter, the city will not speak further at this time.”
The expressway is located in Hampton, in the southeastern metropolitan area of Atlanta, which is part of Henry County.
Page A. Pate, an attorney for Rodriguez’s family, said in a statement Saturday that his survivors were satisfied with the charges.
“Fernando’s family has patiently waited for justice on this case and is delighted that the process is now moving forward,” said Godfather. “We’re especially grateful that the officers were all charged with murder, and we think the charges fit the crime.”
Prosecutors said officers violated their oath “by stretching Rodriguez prone on the floor while he was handcuffed and shackled, holding him and putting pressure on his body.”
He was also subjected to more than a dozen electric shocks, prosecutors said.
Rodriguez was leaving the Electronic Dance Music Festival when the confrontation took place, prosecutors said.
It’s not clear why Rodriguez was naked. His family’s lawyers said he needed medical attention before the police reached him.
Fernando Rodriguez is tasered by Hampton County police officers in 2019.Godfather, Johnson & Church law firm
The edited body camera video of the confrontation, provided by lawyers to Rodriguez’s family, shows an officer using a stun gun pointed on his back as he moves away from the police.
According to the tape, an officer threatened to kick his teeth while lying on the ground.
The video also shows the man groaning on the floor. Officers can be seen using stun guns when Rodriguez does not immediately respond to orders, including orders to lie on his stomach.
“I just didn’t want to have to kill the boy,” one of the officers can be heard saying.
A federal wrongful death lawsuit alleged that one of the officers called Rodriguez a “sweaty little pig”.
The complaint, filed on May 11, stated that “officials did not provide any assistance and continued to peg Fernando to the ground for almost four minutes” after he became “completely unresponsive”.
It is said that Rodriguez was “non-combative” throughout the confrontation, claiming the accused injured its constitutional right to due process and freedom from improper searches and seizures.
The suit names the officers, the city of Hampton and Henry County. Godfather and partner Jess B. Johnson filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta on behalf of Rodriguez’s parents, Octavio Rodriguez Cira and Fabiola Merlos Martinez, and his sibling Octavio Rodriguez.
The county did not respond to a request for comment on the litigation. The city of Hampton reached an agreement with plaintiffs on July 19, Cohilas said.
Godfather said the settlement amount was $ 3 million.
Rodriguez’s death has been investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Anthony Cusumano contributed to this.
