Lie #3: My brother never attacked any of the deputies. He did not assault anyone. My baby brother, as big as he was, didn’t even defend himself.

The deputies keep shouting at him to turn over on his stomach. They electrocute him again. He screams. At no point does anyone tell him why he was stopped, what they think he has done, whether or not he is under arrest. When there is a break in the torture, my brother staggers to his knees, tries to run away. A deputy pulls out his baton, strikes, they tase him again. My brother goes down. At some point, my brother tries to run across the street, they chase him, they tase him, they pepper spray him, they jump on top of him while he is prone. There is audio of Sergeant Weidner saying “Stay on top of him, stay on top of him, stay on top of him.” Someone asks if my brother is still breathing. Sergeant Weidner keeps cheering them on, telling them to stay on him until they have crushed the life out of him. Someone shouts “I see blood!” Then it’s over.

My brother has clearly died, right there on the sidewalk, in broad daylight. One of the deputies immediately declares it a crime scene. A deputy asks another, solicitously, if he wants water. Killing my brother is thirsty work, apparently. What not a single one of those deputies does is give my brother CPR. None of them tries to help him. They express no shock or remorse at the fact of his death. It’s all very casual. They prop his body upright, like an over-full trash bag. His head hangs forward, airways occluded. No one follows even the most basic life-saving procedures. There is no mercy or compassion for my little brother. If they had killed a dog the way they killed my brother, there would be outrage.