Phoenix Police Department has released the names of the officers involving in the in-custody death of Muhammad Muhaymin earlier this month.
Muhaymin was originally contacted by police on January 4th outside of the Maryvale Community Center. Several officers had to subdue the 43-year-old man who was reportedly acting erratically. He began showing signs of medical distress after he was placed in handcuffs and despite emergency care before being taken to the hospital, he died.
Phoenix Police Department says officers Oswald Grenier, Jason Hobel, Ronaldo Canilao, David Head, Susan Heimbigner, Kevin McGowan, James Clark, Dennis Leroux, Ryan Nielsen and supervisor Steven Wong were involved in the incident. All officers have between 12 and 23 years of experience.
All officers have returned to duty, officials say.
The death is still under active investigation, however, Police Chief Jeri Williams says releasing body camera footage before the investigation is complete would not "jeopardize (their) ability to complete a thorough and accurate investigation."
More than a dozen body camera videos were released Thursday.
Chief Williams said in a statement, "As with any critical incident, we will always review and learn from what has transpired."
Black Lives Matter advocates and other rights groups have spoken out, calling the incident a "brutal killing of... an unarmed black man."
Thursday, Muhaymin's sister said police did not react appropriately, given that her brother suffered from mental illness.
"This should have never happened," Mussallina Muhaymin said. "There's no reason to justify this."
Phoenix police say officers are trained to properly deal with encounters involving those with disabilities and all officers involved in the incident with Muhammad Muhaymin were up to date on their training, including one who was a specialist in crisis intervention.
