Family demands changes after man died while being pinned by police following seizure
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The family of an Indiana man who died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by police earlier this month said Monday he suffered from epilepsy and had been living with seizures for nearly a decade.
Rhyker Earl's family also watched body camera video footage for the first time on Monday, showing police and paramedics treating earl.
The Jasper County Sheriff's office released the body camera video to the public on Friday, but Earl's family had not seen it until Monday.
With their attorney by their side, relatives watched it in horror, and called for major policy changes, arguing no other family should have to experience such heartache.
Earl's pleas for help in the videos brought his family to tears as they relived his final moments captured on police body cam footage.
It was part of what was an emotional news conference at the Urban League on the South Side of Chicago, where Earl's family broke their silence about the footage of his death.
Earl's family accused officers of using excessive force that night when they responded to a 911 call to help the father of two, who was experiencing a seizure at a home in Demotte, Indiana.
"He was having a medical crisis. They did what most people in America would do. They called 911. They needed a helping hand. They didn't need a death sentence," family attorney Ben Crump said.
The video shows Earl being restrained and pinned to the floor while he pleaded for help, even saying he couldn't breathe. In the video, Earl shrieks repeatedly, "Guys! Please!" and also says more than once, "I'm going to die!"
Earl died at an area hospital two days later. The mother of his two children, Cassie Paris, is now left to raise them on her own.
"All I hear is, 'Daddy is sleeping,' and the cries of his mother from the day we laid him to rest," said Paris. "Our hearts will forever be broken without him."
While the Jasper County Prosecutor's office and Indiana State Police investigate what happened, the Jasper County Sheriff has maintained officers put Earl in a position that would not restrict his breathing. But Earl's family said that claim is not consistent with what they saw on video.
"He went through torture, and he just needed some help for a seizure. I don't understand, I'll never understand, but we need change," said Earl's grandmother, Sharon Krause-Earl.
Earl's family said it was the second seizure he suffered that day.
"I feel like nobody should feel this pain like my family is," added Earl's sister, Tara Earl. "Rhyker never deserved this."
Ayesha Akhtar, the director of education at the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, manages seizure first-aid training for schools and communities in 43 counties in Illinois.
"There is nothing that you and I could do once a person has a seizure, but all we can do is make sure that they're safe," Akhtar said.
Akhtar said understanding what a person is experiencing when having an epilepsy-related seizure is key to how a respond is handled.
"Which is why it's so stressful in those moments, you know, for law enforcement having to make a decision—you know, is this someone coming off drugs, or is this someone having a seizure, or is this something else?" she said. "Having as much information as possible is going to be life-saving."
It is worth noting that roughly 3 million Americans suffer from epilepsy.
The family is calling for major change on how law enforcement responds to situations where people are experiencing seizures in connection to epilepsy.
The family has not yet filed a lawsuit over his death, and is waiting for autopsy results to reveal the exact cause of death.
