Attorneys and family members are demanding transparency from New Haven police after a 36-year-old man was severely injured in the back of a police van.
Richard “Randy” Cox has signs of paralysis, attorneys and family say.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday morning, attorneys called for the release of more police video of the June 19 incident, and family members said the officers involved should be arrested and charged.
Five officers have been placed on paid leave. Connecticut state police are investigating the incident.
Cox was injured in the back of the van when one of the officers said he braked to avoid an accident. Cox was later dragged into a police holding cell.
Family members say the officers did not show compassion or concern for Cox, who had asked for help and said he was injured.
Police video footage already released is “horrific,” said Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who is representing the Cox family. Crump has represented families of several people of color nationwide who have been killed or injured by police officers.
“This is shocking, this is horrific, this is unacceptable, this is inhumane,” Crump said. “We are better than this, New Haven. We are better than this, America. How many more times do we have to see Black people brutalized at the hands of people who are supposed to protect and serve them?”
Crump added: “This Black life is worthy of dignity, respect and most of all humanity.”
As Crump spoke on the steps of the state courthouse in New Haven, family and friends held signs with Cox’s photo that read: “Justice for Randy Cox.”
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for police officers around America to start to believe marginalized people of color, especially Black people, when we say you are brutalizing us,” Crump said.
Crump said what happened to Cox is similar to what happened to Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man who died in 2015 after his neck was broken while he was in a Baltimore police van.
New Haven acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle said last week that the handling of Cox was “unacceptable” and that the department is committed to “make sure an incident of this nature never happens again.”
Cox’s attorneys say they want information released about the driver of the van, Officer Oscar Diaz, including whether he was texting or on a cellphone when he stepped on the brakes to stop the vehicle.
This is a developing story, which includes reporting from the Associated Press.
