The recent death of a detainee at an immigrant detention camp in Texas has been officially deemed a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
“Based on the investigative and examination findings, it is my opinion that the cause of death is asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” Adam C. Gonzalez, deputy medical examiner for El Paso County, said in the report. “The manner of death is homicide.”
The finding does not imply intent to kill, but rather that the victim’s death was caused by another person, according to Lee Ann Grossberg, an independent forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy at the request of The Washington Post.
Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban man who was detained at Camp East Montana in El Paso, died during an interaction with guards after being placed into solitary confinement, according to the government. A fellow detainee who said he witnessed the incident claimed Lunas Campos had been asking for his medication.
The autopsy report indicated that Lunas Campos was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had medication for depression in his system. Asphyxia due to neck and torso compression means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest, Grossberg said.
Following Lunas Campos’s death on Jan. 3, the Department of Homeland Security initially said “staff observed him in distress” and gave no cause of death. Then, in a recorded conversation last week that was first reported by The Washington Post, an employee of the medical examiner’s office told one of Lunas Campos’s relatives that the office was likely to list the manner of death as homicide.
After that report in The Post, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Lunas Campos had tried to take his own life and guards were trying to save him. “Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
In response to questions about the autopsy report, McLaughlin repeated last week’s statement.
A fellow detainee, Santos Jesus Flores, said Lunas Campos was choked to death by detention center guards. He and fellow Camp East Montana detainee Antonio Ascon Frometa, both of whom have criminal convictions, had said in phone interviews with The Post that they witnessed the struggle.
The Trump administration has taken steps to deport both men. On Wednesday, a federal judge granted a request by lawyers representing Lunas Campos’s family to temporarily bar their deportation, a court filing shows.
In his order, David Briones, a senior U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of Texas, said that deporting the men would make it harder to “obtain the testimony of these witnesses” given the difficulty of locating them abroad. He set a hearing for next week.
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