Probe launched into death of Black man whose nose was pinched shut by officers

Following a lawsuit from the widow and a whistleblower, a town launches investigation into local police for conduct leading to Black man’s death

Eric Lurry died after being arrested by Jolie Police Department and following the revelation of this upsetting footage, local Joliet leaders have begun a investigation into what led to it (Joliet Police Department)

An independent investigation has begun into an Illinois police department, following the release of dash-cam footage showing a Black man being assaulted in the back of a patrol car.

The victim, who was identified as Eric Lurry, 37, died while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Joliet, a suburb of Chicago, after being arrested in January last year.

In August, his wife Nicole Lurry, who is mother to his three children, filed a federal civil suit that named all the officers connected to his death, accusing the police of masking his cause of death and tampering with evidence.

At the time of Mr Lurry’s death, Patrick O’Neil, the coroner from Will county, ruled the cause to be “accidental overdose” following the ingestion of a deadly amount of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, and concluded that the arresting authorities were not the cause of his death.

However, since Mr Lurry’s death, local leaders in Joliet, including City Manager Jim Capparelli and Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, have hired a lawyer to carry out independent research into the police department’s role in the case.

‘I think it’s important we get a disinterested third party to do a top-to-bottom review of the investigation, to know how we conducted our internal investigations and how we can improve our policies and procedures,’ Mr Capparelli told the Joliet Patch.

His comments come in light of Sargent Javier Esqueda sharing footage from the dash camera with local news channel WBBM-TV. The video depicted his colleague Sargent Doug May hitting a handcuffed Mr Lurry across the face while in the car and appearing to suffocate him.

The whistleblower Sgt Esqueda spoke to CBS2 about the trauma of looking at the clip.

“Every day, having to live with that was a hard thing, knowing that this administration was probably going to do nothing about it.” he said, stating that believed the incident was pushed under the carpet, and when asked if it was an infringement of police behaviour, he said it was, and said that nowhere in his training had that been explained as an appropriate response.

“I can’t think of anywhere where I was taught CPR or in the academy where you slap a man, call him a bad name, cut off his airway, go for his throat.” Sgt Esqueda said.

In the video, Mr Lurry appears to be told “wake up, b****”, by Sgt. May.

Through the footage, Mr Lurry has his nose pinched by Sgt. Mary for roughly 1 minute and 38 seconds, while the officer instructs him to “open your mouth”.

Following this, another police officer puts a baton into his mouth.

Sgt. Esqueda suggested that the arresting officers were trying to confiscate the drugs they have found on them, and that Mr Lurry had put them into his mouth. Following his revelation, he was let go from the force, and later arrested and charged with two incidents of misconduct in December.

This is in stark contrast with the seven-day suspension that Sgt. May was handed, according to Joliet Patch reporting. Sgt. May was also removed from the narcotics unit and given a position supervising other officers in a different department at the same station.

Last year marked an international conversation about Black deaths at the hands of American police officers. The most notable was George Floyd, who died just over a year ago after Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over nine minutes, sparking a wave of protest across the world.